The Witches of Appendix N: August Derleth

 August Derleth is not really one of my favorite authors. But he has two redeeming qualities.

First are his Solar Pons stories. They are a pastische of the Sherlock Holmes stories  and could be easily dismissed, but I found them rather fun. I like to think, in a rather comical and completely unfair fashion, that all the negative stereotypes attributed to Holmes come from Pons. That is not true of course, but it amuses me. In truth I sometimes found Pons more approachable than Holmes. 

But that is not really the topic of today.

Second, it is largely due to Derleth that we know H.P. Lovecraft. He republished his works and contributed a lot (of good and bad) material to what has been dubbed The Cthulhu mythos.  

While Derleth did a good job with pastiches of Holmes, despite his personal connection to Lovecraft, his "pastiches" of the Cthulhu mythos never quite lived up. 

Now, Derleth was a very prolific writer, and I can't even pretend I have gone through all his works. 

He has written with Lovecraft and with Robert E. Howard, I suppose that garners him enough literary "street cred" to be on the Appendix N list.  But despite all the horror he had written, I can't find much about witches.  He did write one story though that does concern witches...sort of.

Witches’ Hollow

Published in Dark Mind, Dark Heart and presented as a “posthumous collaboration” with Lovecraft, the story is set in rural Massachusetts, in the familiar shadow of Arkham country. The premise is simple and folkloric: there is a hollow, a depression in the woods, where witches once gathered. Something of their rites still clings to the place.

In “Witches’ Hollow,” Derleth does not give us a witch so much as the memory of witches. The hollow itself becomes the character. It is a place where covens once gathered, where rites were enacted, and where something of those rites has never quite dissipated. Unlike Lovecraft’s Keziah Mason, who manipulates forbidden geometry and traffics with alien beings, Derleth’s witches are anonymous and historical. They exist as residue rather than agency.

Yet this is not without value. In folkloric witchcraft, place matters. A grove, a crossroads, a hollow in the woods. Derleth accidentally stumbles into something very old here. Witchcraft is not merely about spells. It is about land. And land remembers. 

This story feels a little like "The Dunwhich Horror" meets "The Colour out of Space." Indeed the Whatleys of the Dunwhich Horror are mentioned here and might even be related to the Potters of this tale. Yeah, hearing "Wizard Potter" a lot is funny. 

But there are three things in my mind that set this apart as a Derleth story and not a Lovecraft one.  First is that everything is connected to everything else. This isn't just a lone standing story about a weird family in the country, everything is connected to something else in the mythos. Which takes me to my second point, the "star signs" or "elder signs" are used in abundance here. Too much. They get used like holy waffers do in Dracula and that is certainly not what Lovecraft would have intended. Our school teach goes from being a potential witness to cosmic horror to RPG monster hunter. Lastly, and this is a nitpick more than anything, the ending is a happy one. Look, almost no one ever survives a tangle with the cosmic horrors Lovecraft wrote about, but here the Potters manage to survive and even leave the area no worse for the wear. That doesn't really feel very Lovecraftian to me. 

Still. Lovecraft, like Moorcock, helped define the D&D Warlock and goes back to very roots of the hobby. And if it wasn't for Derleth we might not ever know who Howard Philips Lovecraft was.

#RPGaDAY2026: Day 26 Regret

Every witch has some form of regret and her own way of bearing it.

It is Witchcraft Wednesday as well, so the word regret seems apt.

Ash Witch died with regret on her lips. In the course of leading refugees from Yog to West Haven, she had done much, but at the end what was of any consequence were the ones she failed to save. Her dying words were an apology. "I'm sorry."

Veyra Shadowraven’s regret is of a different order. She chafes at not being as great as the Ash Witch, or perhaps kind enough. One could say she is simply not enough. Such feelings have a way of sharpening a person, though they can leave you hollow if you allow them to. Veyra is very nearly hollow now.

And in Jackson, there is Larina, who for years has been defined by the fact that she did not save her mother. Even if there was really no way for her to have known. It made her brilliant and driven, angry and impossible to deal with at times. But that sort of emotional intensity has a way of crossing over into other universes. When she spoke to her "shard" in Carbon Vale of how things had gone, she found a version of herself there who had been able to see her mother survive.

Larina of Carbon Vale has no such regrets. Or at least none of that.

You find that in a multiverse, regret is a curious matter. 

In one place it is a wound, in another a warning, and in some cases it is what keeps a person alive. For a witch, it is perilous because it puts the same question before you: what would you do differently? And then you are left to wonder whether you would come to regret the change, or the fact you did not make it sooner.

Jackson NPC

It is Witchcraft Wednesday, so let's do someone special for Day 26, Wednesday, Emotion and Full of Woe. 

Mai Voss: Faye Thorne's (original name "Fiona Voss") mother, a ghost of grief, love, regret, and everything stolen too soon. Her husband, Arthur Voss, traded them to the Blackthorne Hags for power, but they killed him and Mai and kept baby Fiona instead. Renamed her Faye Thorne and raised her as their "niece."  Faye does not discover this for many years. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 25 Familiarity

 There is a familiarity to Jackson, IL, and for good reason. The town is rooted in the reality of Jacksonville, Illinois. 

I have not made an exact copy of it; my version of Jackson is fictional, put through the wringer and bent toward horror. But the underlying structure is genuine. You will find the same old buildings, the streets and parks and schools, the small-town cadence and the way folks know one another all too well. The names have been changed, but sometimes only just enough.

Such details are what make or break a game.

I put that to the test at EGG Con with my Jackson game. What struck people was how much the town seemed lived-in. It was one of the best compliments I could have gotten, really. Jackson ought not to come across as mere scenery. It has to be a place where lives were started and ended, where love and terrible errors and unfinished business have taken their course.

Horror needs that kind of weight.

Give me a haunted castle, and I am all for it. Yet there is something more unsettling about a haunted library or school, or a haunted house just three blocks from your friend’s. That is what gets under the skin.

Jackson is effective because it could be somewhere you have been.

It is somewhere I have been, if only in my nightmares at first, but now at my game table. 

Yog/West Haven NPC

It's Tuesday, so today is Emotion and Full of Grace. 

Satha of the White Veil, a former temple attendant from Yog who moves with impossible gentleness, even after escaping the Priest-Kings, and can soothe panic with a touch. She attends to the spiritual needs of the Yogian refugees; she is a cleric and not a witch, though she really isn't that anymore either since losing faith in her gods and the Priest-Kings. Someone or something is still answering her prayers.

Jackson Soundtrack

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A Light Dims over the Cave of Cool: Calvin Heighton (1965-2026)

 I learned today something I have been expecting for a bit now, but that doesn't make it easier.

Proflic blogger Calvin Heighton passed away this past week. Calvin was known for his Cave of Cool blog. 

Calvin started blogging around the same time I did, and I followed his blog religiously. Whether he was posting about his extensive action figure collection, his Glorious Girls Of The Redhead Rebellion, Wednesdays with Wonder Woman, and Why Are My Parties The Best Parties?

I learned yesterday morning from my friend Tim Knight, of Cowboys, Capes, and Claws. 

Tim and I have been asking about Calvin for about a year now, noticing that after averaging 7+ posts a day for nearly 18 years (almost 48,000 posts), he fell silent. We knew his mom had been ill, and we knew he had some housing insecurity. 

He loved superheroines and action figures, so I sent him one of the "Together Forever" sets of the Willow & Tara figures. We enjoyed chatting about having June birthdays and our shared love of Thomas Dolby's "The Golden Age of Wireless."

I liked Calvin. He was a good guy. Bombastic in all the ways made him a great internet personality. He will be missed.

#RPGaDAY2026: Day 24 Distance

I have two modern horror campaigns. They let me play with similar ideas under different assumptions and even different rules. My oldest calls this "save scumming." It is from video games: if you don't like a particular outcome, you go back to your previous save and start back from there. For me, I think it is more about having two separate but equally enjoyable outcomes.

Jackson, IL, and Carbon Vale, IL, are about 220 miles apart. That is their physical Distance.

That is not nothing, but it is not exactly the other side of the world either. You could drive it in an afternoon. Different roads, different towns, different exits, but still Illinois. Still the Midwest. Still close enough to feel familiar, but still far enough to be different. I know, I drove to and from their real-world counterparts many times. 

Except they are not in the same world.

For me, Jackson and Carbon Vale are separate universes. They even use different game systems, which makes the distance between them feel larger than any map can show. They are not just separated by miles. They are separated by rules, histories, assumptions, and the kinds of monsters waiting in the dark.

And yet magic makes them closer.

A mirror, a spell, a book, a dream, or the right impossible moment can cross a distance no highway can. That is what I like about using both settings. They are far enough apart to be different worlds, but close enough that one girl can still reach for the other.

In this case, it is a battered-up copy of "A Wrinkle in Time." Notes left in the pages are transported to a similar book 220 miles and a universe away. I talked a little about this back on Day 12.

So what is the difference between Jackson and Carbon Vale?

More than distance, honestly. But also less than distance.

Jackson, IL and Carbon Vale, IL NPC

Today is Emotion and Fair of Face.

Siân Nichols is Larina’s mother in the worlds where she lives, beautiful, warm, and emotionally central in ways Larina does not always admit. Siân died in the Jackson, IL campaign, but thanks to Nix and Creepy communicating via "A Wrinkle in Time," she is alive in the Carbon Vale, IL campaign.

There will likely be some repercussions to this act, but I am not sure what they are going to be yet. But I know they will happen.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 23 Fortune

 By all accounts, Stephanie Vale, Andy Thompson, and even Roderick Morgan all have fortunes. 

But each one chooses to ignore that to do what they feel is more important.

There are fortunes to be had in Stephanie Vale, Andy Thompson, and Roderick Morgan. Though one would not call them the same kind of fortune.

Stephanie has her family’s money and a name that is enough to open any door in Jackson, along with the social standing to match. Andy enjoys his comfort and reputation, and was well enough raised to put a value on decency. Then you have Roderick Morgan with his old money and property and old grudges, and the unshakable notion that since it is his town, Jackson ought to behave.

I am more interested in how they put their respective fortunes to use.

Take Stephanie: she will not sit idly by in the face of injustice. If there is something amiss, she is going to do something about it. She will organize, argue, protect, and interfere until the matter is resolved, making herself a problem for everyone in the process. If Steph was a teen in a modern (2026) game she would say something like "I am not part of the problem, I am the whole fucking problem now!" 

Andy has an eye for potential. He can see what good a person could do, or the better version of themselves they might yet be, and he has a way of making them want to rise to the occasion. He cares only enough about his family's wealth insofar as what good can he do with it. 

Roderick is another story. To be frank, he is a bit of a jerk. Ok. He is a huge jerk. Yet he does not simply sit on his hands. He has no patience for disorder and finds the supernatural encroaching on "his" town to be a personal affront. He is not exactly noble, but he is driven. Which has its uses in my game. 

One should not think of fortune as mere treasure. 

It is also influence and opportunity; it is being in a position of comfort and having people believe in you. The real question is what a character makes of it. Will they be an inspiration or a protector? Or will they set about forcing the world into the shape they deem proper?

In Jackson, IL, a little fortune will not keep the monsters at bay. All it does is give you more options when they show up.

Thankfully, in the cases of Stephanie, Andy, and Roderick, they do show up.

Jackson NPC

Today is Day 23, Sunday, Instinct and Blessed. 

Father John Mallory is a Jackson priest whose faith is sincere enough that even witches sometimes trust him. He is aware of the supernatural, but because these sorts of creatures avoid him, he thinks they are largely contained. He is not a Theophist, just a normal but kindly priest.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 22 Grit

Candy Mercer and Denise Carver do not have magic.

You will not see them using any spells or a witch’s mark on them, nor do they have an ancient bloodline to call their own, let alone a familiar. To my knowledge, Denise can't even do a card trick, though I suspect Candy can.

It is 1986, and the two of them are still some way off from being the nurse and social worker they will one day be (spoilers!). For now, they are simply two teenage girls living in Jackson, IL, making it through high school as best they can with all its bad rumors and worse adults, while living with the unpleasant fact that monsters are very real.

They stand up anyway. That is grit.

And no one is more surprised than me!

They were designed just to be two silly but sweet party girls whose main job was "monster bait." But at some point Denise picked up a crowbar, and Candy started stitching people back up. And very soon the saying "Denise fucking Carver shows up" became something heard at my table a lot. Because when there is trouble, and people need help, there she was, and Candy right behind her, ready to stitch up whoever needs it.

They are not Chosen Ones with a secret destiny or a Witch with a shelf of occult tomes. But they make themselves present. They protect one another, and when faced with horror, they determine that flight is not the answer. In a place like Jackson, there is plenty of reason to turn a blind eye, but they don’t.

So the witches can have their magic; People like Val and Rowan can have their mystical connections. But Candy and Denise have something of equal importance. A kind of ordinary, stubborn courage that keeps them standing. 

And when things get really bad?

Candy Mercer and Denise Carver fucking show up. 

Jackson, IL NPC

Saturday, Instinct and Works Hard. 

Mick Tully, a teenage (17 years old) stock boy at the IGA who works closing shifts, notices every strange pattern in town, and quietly keeps a notebook of who buys salt, candles, batteries, and sage by the pound before bad things happen. He is another good potential contact. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 21 Charity

I have a West Haven in many of my worlds. 

They are not always the same place. They do not always have the same people, the same history, or even the same rules of magic. But they exist for the same reason.

Yet they are there for a common purpose: to serve as a safe haven for witches.

It is a form of charity, but not the kind born of pity. There is no tossing a few coins at someone to assuage one’s conscience. This is shelter. It is protection and sustenance, a warm room with a door on the lock. A spot where a young witch, frightened, can get some sleep and not have to wonder who might be after her.

Yog is an example of this. From there to West Haven runs a portal, burned through realities by the Ash Witch, and all who pass through are made welcome. They are seen too and cared for without any preliminary questions or need to prove their worth. One is not asked to lay out their trauma before being given clean clothes, water and food, and somewhere secure to rest. No one has to prove their worth.

In Advanced Witches & Warlocks, that distinction is also important. Witches may be powerful, but they are also hunted and misunderstood, blamed and used. Every one of them will come to a point where she needs to have a door opened and be told, "You are safe here. You are welcome."

West Haven is that. A place built on a promise of charity and a promise that it does not need to be repaid.

Jackson, IL NPC

We are back to Friday, Instinct and Loving & Giving. 

Rachel "Rae" Donnelly, a Jackson Public High junior who always knows when someone is about to get hurt, and has made it her unofficial job to pull them out of the hallway, party, car, or conversation before it happens. She might have low-key pre-cognitive powers. Thankfully, unlike Cassandra from mythology, people usually believe her.  

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 20 Promise

 A promise on Yog is not a small thing.

In a kinder world, a promise might be comforting. A vow between friends. A pledge of love. A hand held across a difficult moment. Yog is no place for such niceties.

One does not make a promise on Yog and think little of it.

A promise here has the potential to be a weapon, a curse one bears because there is no other option. Veyra Shadowraven is well aware of that. In giving her word to see the Ash Witch’s work through, she has made no light promise.

The legacy of the Ash Witch was never an easy one to inherit. What she left behind is a world dying by inches, unfinished business, refugees in need of protection, tyrants to be put down, and witches to be saved. To put your name to carrying on is to take on the cost and perhaps come to terms with the fact you will not be thanked for the lengths you have to go.

In Veyra's case, she is now a wanted "terrorist" and, even worse, "a witch against the Priest-Kings."

That is the thing about promises in fantasy gaming. They are engines, not mere backstory. The right kind of promise will propel a character on in spite of fear, pain, or what common sense may dictate. Even when a normal person would have stopped. 

Veyra’s promise is straightforward enough on Yog. 

There is work to be done. And so she is not finished.

And like the Ash Witch, Veyra can rest when she is dead.

Iriandor NPC

Today is Instinct and Far to Go. Calder Foxglove is an Iriandor courier who can smell bad magic on the wind. Well. At least he says he can. It would be one of his "Experiences," and the rules of Daggerheart will allow for such a thing. Which is kind of fun really. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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The Witches of Appendix N: H.P. Lovecraft

One of the old masters of the Dungeons & Dragons experience, and indeed of many role-playing games, is H. P. Lovecraft. Since tomorrow would have been his 136th birthday, it seems fitting to examine his contribution to the Witches of Appendix N.

I could spend an entire series discussing his influence on D&D, AD&D, and Call of Cthulhu. I could spend another series on his influence on modern horror. Others have done that work, and done it well.

Instead, I want to narrow the focus. Not how Lovecraft influenced Gary Gygax when co-writing Dungeons & Dragons with Dave Arneson, nor how he influenced later AD&D design. I want to look specifically at the witches in his fiction. Witches that are recognizable to readers of this blog.

The Big Three

When it comes to witches, there are three stories that stand out more than the others: Dreams of the Witch House, The Dunwich Horror, and The Thing on the Doorstep. 

Keziah Mason

The Dreams in the Witch House features Keziah Mason, the ur-witch of the Mythos.

She is said to have lived in Salem in 1692 and to have been arrested during the witch trials. That alone gives her a witch pedigree that no other Lovecraft character quite matches. Her former home is literally known as “The Witch House.”

But Keziah is not merely a colonial sorceress. She is a mathematician of the forbidden and the occult.

Her witchcraft blends:

• Ritual magic
• Non-Euclidean geometry
• Pacts with beings beyond human comprehension
• Dimensional travel

She has a familiar, the rat-thing Brown Jenkin, which acts as a proper familiar should: as an intermediary, a spy, and a bringer of harm.

The aspect of Keziah that makes her truly Lovecraftian is her intellectual approach to magic. She gets her power not from the earth, the herbs, the spirits, but from her understanding of the world in terms of angles, of solving equations, of navigating hyperspace through mathematics.

You could argue quite readily that the character of Keziah Mason is much closer to the D&D warlock than the witch. She is not the village's wise woman. She is the academic heretic, the one who has turned her back on the academic world. And it is here that the concept of the warlock in D&D starts to come together: the pact-maker, the wielder of forbidden knowledge, the one who trades safety for power.

I have also used her as the source of the equations used to power starships in my BlackStar setting. 

Lavinia Whateley and the Whateley Clan

The next one is The Dunwich Horror.  Lavinia Whateley and the Whateleys are basically archetypical witch family. The Mayfair family from Anne Rice is basically from the same mold.

Lavinia is described as ugly, albino, and strange-looking. She is isolated in the rural area of Dunwich, Massachusetts, and is raised by her grandfather, Old Whateley, who teaches her arcane formulae from forbidden books.

She is a participant in a ritual summoning and has a child with Yog-Sothoth.

This is hereditary or family witchcraft.

Unlike Keziah, Lavinia does not seem to be driven by a thirst for knowledge, merely part of a family tradition. The Whateleys seem to be part of an occult dynasty, a decadent New England family that still practices pre-Christian and cosmic rituals.

Lavinia is a bit of a mysterious figure; is she a willing participant or a victim? She is only described in external terms, observed, and spoken about.

This is the archetype for the rural cult witch in D&D: the isolated valley, the hidden grimoires, the crossbreeding with the outer forces, and the idea that witchcraft is not a class choice, merely a blood inheritance. It might even be related to the D&D Sorcerer, rather than the standard Draconic bloodline that is standard in the 3rd edition era; it is the root of the Aberation bloodlines in later editions.

Asenath Waite 

She is presented as attractive, though marked by unnerving eyes. She is the daughter of Ephraim Waite, an Innsmouth occultist. Her mother was a Deep One.

Asenath’s witchcraft is intimate. She practices:

• Body-swapping
• Identity erasure
• Psychological domination

Where Keziah works through geometry and Lavinia through lineage, Asenath works through possession.

She is a domestic witch in the most terrifying sense. She marries. She enters a home. She infiltrates identity itself. 

And unlike Lavinia, Asenath is not passive. She is willful. She drives the action. She pursues control.

Lovecraft and Witches

We know from his letters that Lovecraft had a dim view of feminism. I am not prepared to say he was misogynistic at all, but rather, he seemed not to think about women very much. The women in his tales were either mothers or had occult ties.  

Keziah Mason and Lavinia Whateley are examples of women who engage in forbidden knowledge, defy social norms, and exist outside ordinary domestic life. While this makes them good witch characters, it does not put either into particularly good light. There are no witch protagonists in Lovecraft tales because there are no women protagonists. Some of this is due to the time, and some to Lovecraft's very conservative social outlook. None of this is really in dispute, but it does color how I want to approach his witches. 

True, none of the characters above are "misunderstood," but they could be more nuanced. Is Lavinia a victim of her weird-ass family? Is Keziah a victim of her own genius? Is Asenath a...no Asenath is pretty much as she is written. 

The Witch as Seeker of Power

There is a recurring pattern here.

Lovecraft’s witches access knowledge denied to them by conventional institutions. They do not sit in classes at Miskatonic University. They might haunt the library, but they are never part of the faculty or student body.

• They make pacts.
• They inherit grimoires.
• They calculate angles that warp reality.

It supports a powerful interpretation: witches are those who seek access to forbidden systems of knowledge when barred from official ones.

And in Lovecraft’s universe, knowledge itself corrupts.

Given how many of his male scholars meet equally terrible ends, perhaps the lesson is not that women should not seek knowledge, but that no one should.

#RPGaDAY2026: Day 19 Desire

 Since this is also Witchcraft Wednesday, let’s talk about desire.

Occult magic begins with wanting.

Not wishing. Not hoping. Wanting. The kind of desire that keeps one awake, sends one back to the old book, makes them draw the circle one more time, whisper the name, light the candle, open the door.

That is what separates occult magic from other kinds of magic.

In this lies the distinction between occult and other forms of magic. 

A wizard may approach it as an academic pursuit, a cleric as something of grace. But a witch comes by her magic where will and need intersect. Whether for healing or revenge, for power, justice or love, for answers or simply a way home, she wants it.

It is a dangerous thing, desire.

When magic responds, it is not always a clean transaction. The spell delivers what was requested rather than what was intended; the spirit is attuned to the hunger behind the words, the curse will take the form of the injury. 

Witches are bound by their taboos and covens, by patrons and tradition, for this reason. Not so as to put an end to their wants, but to see they live through it.

Yog NPC

Back to Wednesday, Instinct and Child Full of Woe. 

Megyn the Child is a Yog survivor whose instincts keep her alive, but not always kind. She is called the Child, but also the Ghost and the Herald of Screams. She is a witch and a trained swordswoman. She has been raised by Veyra Shadowraven as an instrument of vengeance against Yog's Priest-Kings. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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Tales of Jackson, IL: Val and Ami

 I have not done any NPC profiles in a long time. I wanted to do this because at EGG CON I had a player play Val, and he did such a great job bringing my "dumb jock" to life. I just had to revisit him. 

Ok, calling Valentino "Val" Michele Moreno a dumb jock in not fair. He is not the smartest guy in the room, but he has a lot of things going for him besides being on the football and baseball teams. I also want to talk about his other best friend Ami. It takes Val a bit, but he realizes that Ami is in love with him. 

Both Val and Ami are here for the "High School Jock" stereotypes, and honestly, if this were a horror movie, they would be among the first to die. But this is a game, and they both are really good kids and a lot of fun, so far they have lived and even taken some serious hits. Well...every hit is serious in this game.

Valentino "Val" Michele Moreno

Val has been Andy Thompson's best friend since 1974, when Val brought a Nerf football to preschool, and they played with it all recess. Val's family never had the money the Thompsons did, but Andy LOVED staying with Val because of his huge family. It is Val and his four younger sisters. Val was almost sent to St. Michael's Catholic School, but he convinced his parents that his chances at a football or baseball scholarship would be better at Jackson Public High School. He was right, of course. 

At the start of the game, Val is dating Stephanie Vale. Naturally, the captain of the football team is dating the head cheerleader. They break up when Stephanie discovers all the supernatural dealings in town. Plus, Stephanie can see that Ami is the one who loves Val. 

Val is a Divine Warrior, from the NIGHT SHIFT: Night Companion. He was originally just going to be a survivor, but something in him awakened when the Bell rang in Jackson. He was already a fairly devout Catholic boy with very strong opinions. Also, the idea of a monster preying on girls in his town was deeply offensive to him. Yes, this is me being political. So when he discovered that his ex-girlfriend and her friends were fighting monsters at night, Val did what Val always does; he grabbed a baseball bat and went to help, whether they wanted him to or not. Turns out that Val's moral compass is so true his bat actually damages supernautral creatures.

Valentino "Val" Michele Moreno
2nd-level Divine Warrior, Human

Background: Jock

Base Abilities

Strength: 16 (+2) A
Agility: 17 (+2) n
Toughness: 15 (+1) n
Intelligence: 11 (+0) 
Wits: 12 (+0) 
Persona: 14 (+1) 

Vit: 10 (2d6)
DV: 8
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +2
Melee bonus: +4  Ranged bonus: +2

Saves: +1 to Wits and Persona-based saves, +1 to Toughness-based (Jock)

Languages: English
Skills: 

Divine Warrior Abilities
Danger Sense 1 (1d8), Heal injury 1d6 ("walk it off"), Supernatural Attack +1

Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 6'1"
DOB: 1/12/1969

Archetype: The Jock
Quote: "It's not trash-talk if I am right."
Quirks: Is a lot more observant than he lets on.
Theme song: "Centerfield" by John Fogerty

His middle name "Michele" is a variant of "Michael," his patron Saint. St. Michael the patron saint of those who hunt demons. He wears a Saint Michael medallion, and Larina swears it glows when he is fighting. She is not a fan of Val, but knows he is good in a fight. She also knows that whatever makes his medallion glow doesn't particularly care for witches.

One day at school, Valentino was walking down the hall when someone shouted, "Hey Val!"  Both Valentino and Valerie Beaumont said "What?" at the same time, and both laughed. The next day, she said, "Hey Val!" to him, and he said, "Hey Val!" back. It became their thing until graduation and long after. The Assistant Principal, Glenn Daniels, wanted it stopped, but Valerie told him to pull the stick out of his ass. 

Spoilers: Val goes on to the U of I with Ami on that scholarship. He played ball for the minor-league Cardinals for a couple of years but injured his elbow. He ends up teaching at St. Michael's Catholic School and serving as its football coach. 

In 2019, Andy (head football coach at JPHS) and Val decided to do a charity game at the end of their seasons between JPHS and St. Mike's to raise money for local charities. They called the "Crosstown Classic," and it became a weekend-long celebration before the Thanksgiving break. 

Typically, the Hope Center, a place for women and children seeking assistance built by social worker Denise Carver, gets its funds. 

Ami Beth Reed

Ami Beth Reed is on the track team, the girls' basketball team, but most importantly (to her), the girls' softball team. Ami is tough, a little loud, and easy to spot. She stands nearly 6' tall and has short cropped black hair. She is attractive, but her rough exterior tends to intimidate most high school kids. She drives a beat-up '79 Chevy C/K truck that constantly blares Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, and the Scorpions.

Also, everyone thinks Ami is gay. Everyone is wrong. Despite her rough exterior, Ami doesn't really know how to talk to guys. That is, except for Val. Val and Ami have a natural chemistry that people find "odd."  Val was known as the guy who was dating Stephanie Vale, and now he hangs out with Ami all the time. Val tells people that Ami is a great workout partner; they go running every morning. Plus Val will proudly say, "Hey, I am maturing. I have a girl as a best friend."

Ami is hopelessly in love with Val.

Well...not hopeless. In an early playtest adventure, Ami gets hurt when a monster claws her stomach, leaving deep wounds. This established a few things. First, Ami has this cool scar on her side. Secondly, it solidified Candy as my go-to medic, but most of all, it awakened Val's inner Divine Warrior. Ami got hurt, and Val went psycho on the monster. 

Ami Reed
1st level Survivor, Human

Background: Jock

Base Abilities

Strength: 14 (+1)
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 14 (+1) n
Intelligence: 13 (+1) 
Wits: 16 (+2) A
Persona: 15 (+4) n

Vit: 5 (1d4)
DV: 8
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +2/+1/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +0

Languages: English
Skills: 

Saves: +3 to death saves, +1 to Toughness-based (Jock)

Survivor Abilities
Improved defense -1, Open Locks 20%, Bypass traps 15%, Sleight of hand 25%, Move silently 25%, Hide in shadows 25%, Climb 55%, Danger Sense 1-2 (1d6), Perception 40%, Sneak attack +4

Hair: Black
Eyes: Blue
Height: 6'0"
DOB: 2/14/1969

Archetype: The Tough Girl
Quote: Rolls shoulder and points with her bat, "Dibs on the big one."
Quirks: Likes to think she is invincible and takes the hits the "little witches" can't. There is truth in this, but she is not indestructible. 
Theme song: "Invincible" by Pat Benatar

 Ami is from the "bad side" of town on the northeast side. She is not a bad kid, quite the opposite, really, but she has had to learn how to hold herself. She has been in some fights, but has learned that intimidation often stops most fights before they start. Consequently, she always has one of her bats handy. 

In truth, Ami doesn't really care for basketball, but as the tallest girl in the school, she felt kind of obligated to join. She does, however, really enjoy softball and often teases Val that she can outhit him. They spend a lot of time together at the batting cages. Only much later in life will they agree that those nights were in fact dates.

Much like Val, supernatural monsters preying on the helpless offend her sensibilities of right and wrong. 

Spoilers: Ami and Val did get together at the Senior Prom. They then went to the U of I together. Where they stayed together (minus a dramatic "break" their junior year that was short-lived) the whole time. 

Ami got her degree in physical therapy and does weekend sports casts on the local radio station (minor in Radio and Television Media). 

Years later, as married couples, Andy and Rowan, along with Val and Ami, get together on Sunday to watch whatever game is on. Rowan asks questions about what is going on, often just to get a rise out of everyone. 

She had gotten so much grief for her height and jock appearance in high school that when Playboy came around U of I for one of their college girls specials, she submitted pictures. She made the issue representing the University of Illinois. Later, when she shows the issue to Denise and Candy, Candy is pissed off that they airbrushed out her scars. But otherwise, they are thrilled to be friends with a certified "Fucking Amazon Goddess." Val is also pretty thrilled with the issue as well. 

Real-world influence: I went to college with Jenny McCarthy. No, I did not know her well. Her younger sister, Joanne, was one of my students, though. Interestingly enough, that was two different universities on opposite ends of the state. 

Night Shift^® is a registered trademark of Elf Lair, LLC.

#RPGaDAY2026: Day 18 Directness

 Sometimes subtlety is overrated, and the direct approach is needed.

One must have tact. There is a time for patience and for choosing one’s words with care, for the sake of hidden meanings or to let another arrive at the truth in his own good time.

But then there are also monsters.

In Jackson, IL, the characters know where directness is warranted. But at times it is necessary to put it bluntly: "That house is haunted." "Your boyfriend is no good for you, he is dangerous." "What is in the basement is not your grandmother." "That skeezy motel is built on a forgotten graveyard." 

Let people go on dancing around the facts and the horror will have all the time in the world to put in its appearance and get comfortable. Or worse, it will have the time to harm or kill someone.

Witches are well aware of this.

They can be as subtle as they like; half their art is in the silence, the symbols, and the timing. Yet a witch also knows when there is no room for subtlety, when a name must be spoken, a warning made plain, and the circle drawn. Some threats are answered with a quiet ritual; others have to be dealt with fire and fury.

To be direct is not to be rude. It is mercy without the frills. And if a witch can be kind about it, she will tell the truth before the screaming has a chance to begin.

Again, or worse, when the screaming has stopped.

Yog NPC

Today is Day 18, Tuesday, Instinct and Full of Grace. 

Sable Reed: A young Yog scout who moves like smoke and always knows which way the hunters are coming. She is tall for her age, but she is also one of the fastest runners around. She has avoided the Slavers and now acts as a scout, lookout, and messenger of the Liberation Front. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 17 Intensity

 Witches are intense.

That is fairly obvious at this point. Whether it is my Jackson, IL setting, my Yog setting or even (especially) my Advanced Witches & Warlocks.

 A witch does not take the things of consequence casually. She has a tendency to believe and see and feel and remember far more than most. There is an intensity to her that is the source of her power.

And her danger as well.

You will not find that kind of intensity in Jackson, IL, in the form of parlor tricks with candles or dramatic pronouncements made under the moon. It is more likely to be a young girl holding someone’s gaze in a school corridor. Or Larina, who will not let a matter rest because she can tell something is amiss even if the rest of them are content to feign ignorance.

Such intensity is capable of saving people. Of frightening them too.

This is what I look for in my Advanced Witches & Warlocks class. I do not want a student to come across as some sort of dispassionate technician of magic, merely ticking off a spell from a list. The witch brings her whole self to the circle: her will and devotion, yes, but also her anger, fear, and desire.

Intensity is focus with a certain heat to it. And when a witch puts her mind to something, heavens help anything that gets in her path.

Jackson NPC

Back to Monday, so Instinct and Fair of Face. Dana Marlowe is a beautiful Jackson Public High senior with a dangerous talent for knowing who is lying, who is lonely, and who is about to make a terrible mistake. She doesn't know, but suspects, that she might have fae background. Her grandmother used to have stories about how her own grandmother once spent an "evening" that turned out to be many years with an unearthly handsome "Gentleman Caller."

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 16 Composure

 Composure is not the same thing as calm.

There is a difference between having composure and being calm. Calm is the absence of fear. Composure is when you are terrified, angry, heartbroken, or worn out, yet you are aware of all the eyes on you. So you take a breath, put your back straight, and level your voice. You get on with what has to be done.

I would say that is very Jackson. 

In Jackson, IL, one needs composure to survive. It is what the cheerleader puts on her face for something truly awful. It is the witch in class after she has made eye contact with a ghost. The child who can tell the teacher is not being honest but has no way of putting it into words. Or the friend who insists "I’m fine" because a tear now could set off a flood.

Witches find it to be a form of practical magic as well. You need focus for your rituals and attention for your wards; panic will break a circle. A witch may be in a right fury or grieving or frightened half to death. But once the candles are going and others are looking to her, she has to hold the line. The same is true for the Spirit Riders, Divine Warriors, and other supernaturals who take up the fight against the darkness. And more importantly, it is true for the scores of normal people who do what needs to be done even when they have no chance of winning.

Composure is not about pretending there is no problem. It is seeing that everything is wrong and deciding not to let it have the upper hand.

Jackson NPC

Another Sunday for Day 16, Sunday, Associates and Blessed. Miriam Kestrel is a West Haven altar girl at St. Mark's Lutheran Church and novice herbalist who seems blessed mostly because frightened people calm down when she enters the room. She enters Jackson Public High School in the Fall of 1986.

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 15 Endurance

Endurance is not glamorous, but it is what is needed.

It's not in the dramatic speech before the monster makes its entrance, or in the final fight and the big spell. It is in the aftermath. The next morning comes, and one has to get up for school or work, field questions, and put on a poor show of lying to adults, all while making an effort not to let on that the sound of something scratching at the window last night is still ringing in one’s ears.

Jackson, IL is a town made of such stuff.

Its old buildings that still hold their secrets; the town puts up with its ghosts. The children have to make do with the fact that the grownups will not believe them. And the witches, they endure the price of seeing and knowing more than they should, and yet are expected to be there on Monday as if they had not.

In a game, this is what counts.

A character does not become interesting just because they survive one terrible night. If it was just about the fight, well, I have plenty of combat-focused games for that.  No, they become interesting because they keep going after it. They carry the scars, the memories, the bad dreams, the unfinished business, and somehow they are still there when the next bad thing happens.

Endurance is not the same as being invulnerable. It is simply standing your ground after you have been worn down. 

So for me, winning the fight is not enough. It is how they walk away from the fight that matters. Sometimes it is more important than the fight itself.

Irianador NPC

Today is Saturday of Week 3, so Associates and Works Hard. 

Rourke Flint is an Iriandor blacksmith who repairs weapons for heroes of the Last War and listens to their stories. He sometimes will do the work for free if the story is a good one. 

Jackson Soundtrack

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#RPGaDAY2026: Day 14 Regard

 Vera is a character I keep seeing differently with regard to the world she is in.

Take Jackson, IL for instance. There you have Vera Rook as a rival; she is sharp and selfish, with a dangerous edge to her because she will do as she pleases. Yet Jackson allows for some development. When, in the future, she becomes Megan’s adoptive mother and uses the name Vera Connors, my view of her shifts. The bad girl act is gone in favor of someone who has made a choice for love and protection. But to become Vera Connors, divorced mother of two and now adoptive mother of Megan Connors, she had to be Vera Rook first.

Or did she?

We get a slightly different Vera Rook in Carbon Vale. Here, one thing was changed. Vera's mother left her father and traveled south to finish her degree, taking teenage Vera with her. This Vera Rook saw her mother stand up for something better than what she had. Instead of becoming bitter and sullen, this Vera became open to the idea that better things happen because you can make them happen. I am not sure of what her future holds, but it is likely she will not become Vera Connors in this world.

And in Yog, she is Veyra Shadowraven. You see her through the haze of sword and sorcery and the light of a dying world there. A darker figure with more shadow and a name to match. Where Vera in Jackson has to improve herself, Veyra in Yog is left to make of her legend what she will.  The ruling class of Yog calls her a terrorist and a subversive. An "evil witch." She agrees with all of those and keeps on doing what she has always done, working to improve the lot of witches everywhere in Yog.

That is the nature of regard in gaming. 

It puts a different light on the same girl under a different set of rules, altering the character while leaving the core intact.

Each Vera shard is real and as valid as the other. She is just shaped in regard to her world. 

West Haven/Yog NPC

Friday, Associates and Loving & Giving: 

Constance, no last name, is a West Haven caretaker who welcomes Yog refugees with soup, blankets, and no questions. She is a former Yogian slave and now refugee who escaped to West Haven. Katrina of West Haven removed her brand with powerful healing magic, and now she spends her days trying to show the same kindness to others.

Jackson Soundtrack

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Tales of Jackson, IL: Jenny, Jenny Who Can I Turn To?

 Today is Jenny Everywhere Day!

I make no excuses for it. I love Jenny Everywhere. 

I love the character, I love the concept, and I love how and why she was created, and just all of it really. Today is the day we celebrate Jenny in all her multitudes. And we celebrate by contributing to her lore.

First and foremost, I must include her license. I don't do this because I have too, I do because it is also part of what I love about her.

"The character of Jenny Everywhere is available for use by anyone, with only one condition. This paragraph must be included in any publication involving Jenny Everywhere, in order that others may use this property as they wish. All rights reversed."

I felt like it was also a great day to finally introduce Jenny, the Shifter, to NIGHT SHIFT. I mean, really. A multi-genre game system needs equally multi-genre NPCs. Jenny can be in every Night World, every Solar Frontier, and by both her own logic and the logic of the Dreaming Age, Jenny was found in the Wasted Lands.

Jenny in Jackson, IL

Jenny: "This town is so weird, and so much more dangerous than any of you know. Seriously, you should all move out, like, now. You are all absolutely bonkers for staying here. But I can’t help it. I love it here."

Larina: "That...is not very reassuring."

Of course, Jenny would end up here eventually. Her "eventually" and our "eventually" are not really the same thing at all, but that is fine. I imagine the characters see her reflection in the glass of Paula's Bookstore one day. She is waving at them, but they can't see her standing inside the store or behind them. She walks through the glass and stands out on the sidewalk. She knows the characters and some of their details, but they are also out of order. Some details are from the future; others may deal with other versions of the characters. So questions like "wow, when did you start wearing glasses?" to characters who have always worn glasses, and so on.

She will exclaim with much pride that today is her birthday and that she was born on this day in 2002. Or will be. Hard to keep timelines straight when you are a Shifter.

Here is how I am planning to use her. Jenny is not a fighter. She is not a harbinger. She is not a warning or even a cautionary tale. Jenny is just fun. Now that doesn't mean something weird isn't happening. But her appearance should feel like the first episode after Sweeps Week or a slightly silly Monster of the Week one. BUT she can be used to move the adventure forward or provide some clues.

For example. In Jackson, the "Big Bad" is the Hollow King. He is trying to absorb special items and then people to fill the emptiness, sorry, Emptiness, inside. His ultimate targets are Candy and Denise. Why? They are "mirror shards," and while they seem to be just two party girls, they actually have connections to all their alternate universe selves. Candy even says all the time, "I contain multitudes." She says it because she thinks it makes her sound cool and deep. But in reality? She could not be more correct. She and Denise have enough to make the Hollow King whole again. And that is bad. Not just "in bringing back a very powerful Necromancer" bad (where the most powerful witch right now is only 2nd level), but because two very sweet and mostly innocent girls would be dead.

Jenny: "Yeah, the data plan is great, but I have to wait 35 more years for decent 5G."

Jenny is like a shard as well. But Jenny is aware of all her "shards," and they are aware of her. The Hollow King could no more consume her than I could eat all of the food in Chicago right now. It would destroy him.  BUT Jenny knows the importance of Denise and Candy. She knows their other shards. 

Now...she might not know why they are important to what is going on in THIS Jackson right now. And she might not even know they are part of the larger seasonal arc; she just knows they are important.

Because of course they are.

Jenny Everywhere
The Shifter

4th level Sage, Human (mostly)

Background: Multiversal traveler. 

Base Abilities

Strength: 11 (+0)
Agility: 13 (+1) 
Toughness: 16 (+2) 
Intelligence: 17 (+2) A
Wits: 13 (+1) N
Persona: 16 (+2) N

Vit: 22 (1d6)
DV: 7 (leather jacket)
Fate Points: 1d6

Check Bonus (A/N/D): +3/+2/+0
Attack bonus (base): +0
Melee bonus: +0  Ranged bonus: +1

Languages: All
Skills: A little bit of everything

Saves: +3 to spells and magic-based saves

Sage Abilities
Survivor Skills, Mesmerize ("Fast Talk"), Lore, Languages, Spells

Survivor Skills
Open Locks: 25%
Bypass Traps: 20%
Sleight of Hand: 30%
Move Silently: 30%
Hide in Shadows: 20%

Read Languages: 20%

Spells*
First-level: Bless ("Motivation Speech"), Command
Second-level: Knock

*Note about spells: Jenny doesn't actually cast spells. Her 'magic' allows certain disruptions of the local reality. She can talk to give someone an emotional boost ("Bless") or get them to do something else ("Command"). She also has an affinity for locks...or more to the point, she has an affinity for getting into places she really shouldn't, and locked doors are not going to be an obstacle ("Knock"). 

Hair: Black
Eyes: Brown
Height: 5'1"
Weight: 101 lbs

Archetype: The Shifter
Quote: "I’m not lost. I’m just taking the scenic route through reality."
Quirks: Travels the multiverse or "shifts" to different realities.
Theme song: She tells everyone it is "867-5309/Jenny" by Tommy Tutone, because she loves seeing people's reactions. (I have to admit I always think it is "Donna Everywhere" by Too Much Joy, but she doesn't fit the girl in the song at all.)

Heroic Touchstones
1st Level: Psychic Power: Tele-empathic link (to other selves) 
3rd Level: Aura Sense/Sight (Mirror Shard Awareness)

The Mirror Shard: Mirror Shard Awareness

Jenny Everywhere does not see the future. Not exactly. She sees versions.

She has made the acquaintance of people before they were born and after they were dead. She has been in worlds where they are famous and in ones where no one remembers them; worlds where they made every wrong move and, impossibly, where they got it right. Jenny does not always have the wherewithal to tell which version is from which reality or which of her memories will be of use. But she will remember a face, a name, and the particular shape a soul has when you run into it more than once.

Jenny calls it her sight. I call this Mirror Shard Awareness.

It is not mind-reading, nor is it prophecy. Call it a multiversal memory. When she comes across someone of consequence, she might well recognize another version of them. Some days this makes her helpful, some days funny, and on occasion it makes her exceedingly careful.

In the course of play, this awareness lets Jenny know things about a character that she ought not to. A nickname that has yet to be used. A scar this world has not put on him. A debt, a rescue, a funeral, or a betrayal that never took place here. Her asides will sound like jokes or mistakes, but there is nothing random about them.

Take Larina Nichols in Jackson. Jenny will notice the glasses first. Many Larinas don’t wear them, but the one in Jackson does. And the one for the Mage RPG does. Jenny puts two and two together: the ones with the glasses are usually the sort who have seen too much and found a way to live with it. The magic they see all the time is just too much.

Or when she calls Faye "Fey." The rest of the room won’t catch it, but Faye will. It will land wrong, or perhaps too right. Jenny isn’t mispronouncing Faye Thorne's name; she is recalling a version of her for whom the name was something older.

The immortal Valerie will get a smile and an inquiry as to where the ten dollars she owes her are, even though Valerie has no recollection of owing Jenny a thing.

"Not yet," Jenny will say, unbothered.

When she sees Candy and Denise are together, Jenny goes quiet. 

"Oh," she’ll say in a low voice. "There they are." She doesn't know why they are important, just that they are. 

That is the awareness at work. Jenny has known Jacksons without them. Jacksons where only one of the pair made it, or where they never met, and the town was all the colder for the absence of two ordinary, impossible girls. She knows their futures. The daughter Denise adopts. The Hope Center that Denise and Candy built/will build in the 2010s to help families in need. 

People's pasts and futures are in her head, but they do not always belong to this world. This is one of the reasons she can't be trusted as an oracle. She is telling the truth; the problem is you can never be sure which truth applies here. She isn't psychic (normally); she just has a lot of incomplete histories and futures.

Game Use

A scene may warrant a comment from Jenny about an important NPC or PC by way of Mirror Shard Awareness. Let the GM make of it what they will: a clue, a warning, an emotional complication, or a jest. It should hint at a possible truth without writing the character’s future for them.

Examples:

"Still here. Good. That matters."

"You wrote the song already? No? My mistake."

"Wait, the scar isn’t there yet? Good. You want to stay off the gym roof in November."

"You are so much harder to convince in this version."

The GM is free to decide if such remarks are true, partly true, true in another timeline or merely symbolic. Jenny is not lying. She is just carrying around too many maps.

Limit: Too Many Truths

Jenny has trouble separating one world’s truth from another. If the players put her on the spot for a straight answer on the future, the GM can rule one of three ways: it is true here, it is true in another world, or it is true only if the characters make it so. Jenny is aware of this and would rather be irritating than put words to a possibility and turn it into a cage.

Edited to Add: This past weekend, I ran a "Next Generation" game in Jackson to see if the setting works outside of the 1980s time frame. It does, but I like the 1980s vibe better. But it does give me a new idea for when I use Jenny later on.

Jenny: "Oh! And say hi to Taryn for me!
Larina: "Who is Taryn?"
Jenny: "Oh. Sorry. Spoilers. Say hi to her in 2012."

Special Limit: Larina's Mirror

You will not catch Jenny looking in Larina's mirror. Not safely. 

While she has passed through a train window, or a comic panel, even a particularly judgmental snow globe to cross universes, Larina’s mirror is different. It doesn’t just show you alternate worlds; it throws back too many shards of Larina Nichols at once: the Witch Queen, the librarian, the schoolgirl, the red-headed girl with the black fingernails and a notebook, the woman with blood on her hands, the psychic storm that still uses her name.

If forced to look, she must save vs. magic (or equivalent). Fail, and she is stunned for 1d6 rounds, unable to shift and unsure of which Jackson she is in. Succeed, and she still sees one impossible Larina with too much clarity and will have nothing more to do with it.

"Nope. Uhn-uh. Absolutely not. That is a Larina-shaped traffic accident across twelve dimensions."

And if she is feeling less flippant:

"That thing doesn’t show you who you are. It shows you who you might be mistaken for. All of them."

She will describe this as akin to multi-versal feedback. Jenny can already see more than most people; she avoids objects that allow others to do what she can do naturally.

Links

• Her page at Public Domain Super Heroes

HAPPY JENNY EVERYWHERE DAY!

#RPGaDAY2026: Day 13 Strain

Strain is what happens before something breaks.

In Jackson, IL, everyone is under some kind of strain. The students are trying to act normal. The parents who know less than they think, or the ones who know more than they let on. The teachers pretending the old building is just old. The witches holding wards, secrets, friendships, and bad dreams together with both hands.

It is good for horror gaming. Fear is the easy part to come by. Strain is more subdued. It is in the poor grades and the lack of sleep, the tremor in one’s hands or a hallway argument born of exhaustion and fear for which there is no ready explanation.

For a witch, this strain takes on a magical quality. There is a price to be paid for every spell, a demand for focus with each ritual. Hold onto a secret for too long, and it begins to weigh on the soul. A witch has her limits; one can bear much, but not indefinitely.

Eventually something has to give. In Jackson at least, it tends to happen at the worst possible moment.

In fact, "the worst possible moment" for the characters is often the best possible moment for the game.

I have an adventure outlined, but not developed yet. Something to get all the characters in the game to distrust each other to distract them from the problem of my big bad, The Hollow King, attacking Rowan. It's an old trope, but an effective one. I am ratcheting up the stress and strain. These are teens. Sturm und Drang. The idea is to have them confront their personal demons before confronting actual demons. 

Jackson, IL or Carbon Vale, IL NPC

Still in Associates Week, and today is Thursday Far to Go. 

Tessa Marr: A runaway from Jackson who keeps turning up in towns where witch trouble is about to start. She has traveled most of Southern Illinois and so far has avoided becoming a sad statistic. This is because of her uncanny ability to avoid trouble and be where she needs to be. 

Her older sister Selene, a woman with pre-cognitive gifts of her own, has been looking for her.

Jackson Soundtrack

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