[Characters] hafrogman's Cole, The Veteran

[Wynamoinen]

A place for your character sheet, and for any discussions that only pertain to your character, or questions that are only relevant to you and the MC.

Please note that this is a private thread for hafrogman, but it is not a "private thread" in the sense of RPGX's permission structure. So anything hafrogman and I say here is public, but I'd ask others not to post here. Truly private things can either be secreted or discussed on discord.

[hafrogman]

Cole Schneider, the Veteran Ducky Draws Art "Hey, you know that weird little tailor shop down the street? The one tucked inbetween the Lucky Cat Gift Shop and the check cashing place? Well, word on the street is that the guy who works there used to be somebody." If you were keyed into the supernatural side of D.C. politics five years ago, you might remember a little bit of a shake-up on the infernal side of things. Or maybe you don't, one demon is pretty much like another until you're the one dancing at the end of their strings. But there was definitely something going on. Lots of scrambling for power, and debts being called in, but it all amounted to nothing. When the dust settled, the ond guy was out, and new demon was sitting on top of the heap. Around that same time, one of their mortal services went missing. No big shock, I wouldn't be surprised to learn that more than one body ended up floating in the Potomac over the whole affair. Only, the thing is, wasn't that guy's name Cole, too? Looks: Caucasian male, tailored clothing. Professional demeanor.   Who are you? It may seem strange to define myself more by what I am not than what I am. But by far the most important thing I can say about myself is that I am no longer the Herald of Justice. Beyond that? I could say 'I am the product of my own mistakes'. I suppose everyone is, it's just that some mistakes are bigger than others. I am a craftsman, a tailor like my father before me... for all I have taken a long, winding road to reach this point. I do find that the quiet day-to-day existence of the artisan suits me surprisingly well. If only I had known that earlier. How long have you been in the city? About twenty-five years all told? I arrived as a fresh-faced nobody straight out of law school, full of bright ideas and too god-damn sure of myself and my dreams. The next two decades passed more quickly than you can possibly imagine. But I've put all that behind me. Five years ago marks my new debut here in D.C. That's the one that counts. What was your greatest accomplishment in the city? Getting out? I mean, that's the answer, isn't it? But that's not what you're asking. I feel like this is a loaded question. It assumes that I'm proud of the things I have 'accomplished'. I suppose the word 'great' could have many meanings. As to not leave you with nothing you did not already know, I shall instead share my biggest accomplishment in the city. Plying a certain congress-critter (you know the one) with earthly pleasures in order to influence their upcoming vote? Anonymously tipping off the PI his wife had hired? Convincing his wife not to go to the press until after the vote? Leaning on the party leadership to pressure the good representative to resign in disgrace? All to convince a completely unrelated senator that she needed to accept my patron's assistance to make sure something similar could never happen to her. So many plates to keep spinning... Why did you stop? The news of my father's death hit me hard. The fact that he killed himself was worse. We had been close, once. But I hadn't spoken to him in... months? I hadn't been home in even longer. He kept so much from me, but if I'd been half as attentive as I should have been, I would have known. I would have seen the warning signs. But I was too busy with other, more "important" things. What a horrible cliché. It takes a loved one's death in order to motivate a person to do anything of merit. But it worked, and not for the first time in my life. My father's suicide reminded me of just how screwed up my priorities had become, of everything I'd once fought for, of everything I'd left along the wayside in pursuit of... I wasn't even sure any more. What do you desperately need? I desperately find my own sense of self again. For five years I have been content to be a passive observer in my own life. But as things begin stirring in the city, I can feel myself being drawn back in. It would be all too easy to fall back into old, familiar patterns. But I have placed that life behind me, and now I need to figure out who I am, separated from my history, but never truly free of it.

Sheet Cole Schneider, the Veteran Caucasian male, tailored clothing. Professional. STATS Blood -1 Heart 1 Mind 1 Spirit 1 FACTIONS Mortality 1 [ ] Night 0 [ ] Power 0 [X] Wild 1 [ ] HARM [ ] Faint [ ] [ ] Grievous [ ] [ ] Critical ARMOR 0 ... ... ... SCARS [ ] -1 BloodShattered [ ] -1 HeartDisfigured [ ] -1 MindFractured [ ] -1 SpiritBroken GEAR Apartment Car (Nice) Smartphone 2-harm close loud9mm Beretta ... ... ... ... MOVES When you first encounter an NPC, you may declare them an old friend instead of Putting a Face to a Name and roll with Mind. On a hit, they offer you comfort and aid, even if it exposes them to danger or retribution. On a 7-9, tell the MC why you owe them a Debt. On a miss, tell the MC why they want you dead.Old Friends, Old Favors When you create something for someone using your Workspace, mark their Faction.True Artist When you get caught up in a fight you tried to prevent, you get armor+1 and take +1 ongoing to seeing yourself and others to safety.Too Old for This S--t! ... ... ... CORRUPTION MOVES Corruption [ ][ ][ ][ ][ ] ... ... DRAMA MOVES When you knowingly head straight into danger, mark corruption.Veteran Corruption Move When you share a moment of intimacy—physical or emotional—with another person, tell them a story about the past and the lessons you learned. Choose 1: You both take +1 forward You take +1 forward and they take -1 forward Hold 1. Spend the hold to Lend a Hand to that character from any distance Intimacy Move When you die or retire your character, choose a character to inherit your Workspace and True Artist.End Move WORKSPACE A Library of Old Books A Mystical Focus Magical Wards   DEBTS ... owes me 2 debts for relying on my training or knowledge Andre owes me 1 debt for One custom-built werewolf wrestling costume that can survive his transformation.a big project that's nearly ready Victor owes me 1 debt for Cole thinks he's teaching Victor how to survive the shadows, but his training is less than effective.protection?

NPCs   Justice, the Patron Justice enjoyed the finer things in life, focusing on the souls of those he deemed 'important' and occasionally those he felt had potential (such as Cole's). He enjoyed the sins of excess: greed, gluttony and lust, using them to build a hedonistic empire of corruption among the elite of DC. He did take also a particular interest in quashing any attempts at self-determination for the city, letting the proposals wither slowly in committee instead of even letting them be voted down. It's so much more fun where you have all of congress to toy with, playing all the special interest groups off of each other, and none of them are sure of when or if the gravy train might run out. Charity, the Rival Charity is more classically minded than her predecessor, wrath is her favorite sin. Under her watchful eye, violent crime has risen among the city's poorest elements. Organized crime, disorganized crime, crimes of passion and crimes of hatred. She enjoys sowing the seeds of discontentment, and letting them fester to promote a feel of hopelessness. Lord Daucus, the Customer Impossibly tall and slender, almost spindly, crowned with a mop of orange-red hair in a style that seems just-rolled-out-of-bed natural, but that actually takes 90 minutes and several quite expensive brands of product to achieve. A minor fae noble, truly nobody holds a higher opinion of Lord Daucus than he himself does. He is an connoisseur of haute couture, with expensive tastes that have kept Cole in rent money over the recent months. He is also deeply in love with the sound of his own voice, and all of his fittings are accompanied by a litany of self-important rambling about everything goes on in the city, the fae courts and in the lordling's own life. Court: I like Spring. Definitely one of the major courts, their own ego wouldn't allow for anything less. Winter is too dark and dour, summer is too hot for finery. Autumn could work with the beautiful fall colors, but a little sad with it's downward trend. Allegiance: Loyal (to a fault). Blindly patriotic. Their own court is the best court, their queen is the best queen, etc. Not prone to independent thinking enough to be any kind of revolutionary. Gossip: Cole hears, unfortunately, everything. The lordling is absolutely in love with the sound of their own voice and chatters incessantly through their appointments. At one point, Cole tried to sift through for important or valuable information, but lacks the requisite context for most of it and now just dumps it all in Brassa's lap. The value is again up to @Vis, but I imagine she gets some base value from just knowing the political waves among the courts and the fae (Who's up? Who's down? Who's in power? Who has been sidelined recently? Could they be a potential ally?). I do like the idea that perhaps the lordling has been promoted to their level of incompetence and was recently put on a subcommittee (or inter-court panel) to discuss something of actual importance (the dissolution of Dusk having gone so well, perhaps Dawn is next on the chopping block?). Perhaps I'm projecting too much human politics onto the fae, but I like the idea that it's much like the house of representatives. There's hundreds of fae lords, most of them don't matter in the slightest and all that's important is how much noise they make.

[Wynamoinen]

lol, there’s an interesting interaction between veteran moves and dragon moves. You can declare any NPC an old friend, and the dragon can declare any NPC an ancient member of their brood. In both cases, that NPC might turn out to be an old enemy. There’s got to be room for shenanigans buried in there…

[hafrogman]

Originally Posted by Veteran

Once upon a time, you were someone important…and dangerous.

When I first looked over the Veteran playbook, it felt like it was very much modeled after the old man in the Blade movies. It took me a bit to get past the idea that you're specifically a retired Hunter. I had toyed with the idea that they had previously been a wizard, but in fiction I generally find that wizards don't even become 'too old' to wiz. It was something you said to jbear that helped coalesce these musings into a more fleshed out idea.

Originally Posted by Wynamoinen

I almost wonder if a Veteran is mechanically closer to what you want? Maybe you were a wolf, but there was a cure?

There's a 2e playbook (the Imp) that's basically a minor demon who has managed to gain a degree of independence, and there's the Tainted which looked interesting, but was ultimately darker than I was interested in playing with. But put these all together and you get the concept I'm working towards.

The Gist <INSERT NAME HERE> was one of the Tainted. He sold his soul for power, money, influence. The usual. At the start, he believed (or at least he told himself) that he was doing it for the greater good. He'd use that influence to shape the world into a better place. But as time went on, power and money became the ends rather than the means, and he found he had less and less say in what that power was used to accomplish. He was bound to his patron by an unbreakable contract, right? Except that about five years ago, he managed the impossible. Demons and devils are devious, treacherous creatures at heart. So he made another pact, this time with his one of his patron's rivals. Betraying one to the other, playing a deadly game with eternal consequences. Unless there was a loophole, the smallest flaw in the contract, a gap just large enough for a single soul to slip through. Now he is once more just a human. Mortal like the rest of us. He gave up all of the power he had originally bargained for, of course. And even the memory of exactly how he engineered his freedom was burned from his mind lest any others seek to follow his path. But he had his freedom, and that was enough.

I like the idea of him being a tailor, but with a little bit of an arcane bent. The Veteran's workshop had a few suitable options, magical wards, a mystical focus, a scattering ancient relics or a library of old books. The playbook a little bit hazy on what exactly can be made, but I was thinking minorly ensorcelled items of clothing might be interesting. A suit that's worth 1 armor, a shirt that resists blood stains for the Vamp, pants that resize and keep the Wolf's dignity intact. That kind of thing. If that's out of line with what's possible then I happy to just have him make bespoke clothing for various members of the community as an artiste.

One thing I really liked about this concept is how it interacts with the When you knowingly head straight into danger, mark corruptionVeteran Corruption Move . I'm not exactly sure what the original intent is here, but for this character I like to read it as his worst fear. The idea that he's not as out as he likes to think he is. Demonic powers might still be his to use... and all it would cost him would be his soul. He avoids violent situations because he's terrified of what he might unleash in a moment of anger. As he advances, I might take the option for 'A move from another archetype' to pick up some minor abilities from the Tainted to reflect this.

Originally Posted by Wynamoinen

lol, there’s an interesting interaction between veteran moves and dragon moves. You can declare any NPC an old friend, and the dragon can declare any NPC an ancient member of their brood. In both cases, that NPC might turn out to be an old enemy. There’s got to be room for shenanigans buried in there…

Isn't it more fun if they turn out to be a friend to one and an enemy to the other? "Okay, okay. So I sent a gang of demons after your lover from a previous life. She survived, didn't she? So where's the harm?"

[Wynamoinen]

I agree that the Urban Shadows vibe would work better between Dragon and Veteran if for the same NPC, one of you gets them as an ally, and the other an enemy! And in terms of the corruption move, I think you've got it right. It's that 'I tried to leave but they keep pulling me back in' vibe.

So in terms of the backstory: there's certainly no rule for losing magical powers, but that's no reason to stop you. Just the opposite!

This doesn't matter for the mechanics, but it might be worth thinking about whether you were formerly a Tainted or a Wizard? There are no hard rules for where magic comes from, so you could still be (in the D&D sense) a warlock, powered through magic of a pact. In urban fantasy (ie Shadowrun) the burned-out mage is a classic character type. I think that your hope is to be something similar to the Tainted, so I don't want to push you away from that. But my reading is that the Tained aren't really magicians, they're just straight-up devils. And your character concept seems to be a magical craftsperson. We can always add story to rationalize either ('when the devil was torn from me, some residue was left behind'), so it's just something to think about.

In terms of crafting bespoke items: that can absolutely be something you do! There's a very importent phrase in the playbook: "When you work on something... the MC tells you what it will take to complete."

I like that you're building in new NPCs - two entities that both now hate you. I assume you're imagining them to be active antagonists/participants in the City? You were reading my mind when you suggested that the way of breaking the contract is now somehow hidden or taken from you. I think that's good, and almost necessary. But maybe you're 'hiding' it too deeply? It could be a big source of story. I wonder if it wouldn't be more dramatic to have another NPC who witnessed/assisted, or a secret order that walked you through the process, or some tragic thing you had to do to seal the deal that keeps coming back to haunt you (or hey one of our PCs will LITERALLY be able to haunt you!).

[hafrogman]

I think you've hit the nail on the head with "this doesn't matter for mechanics". Realistically, my previous life doesn't have to be playable or fit inside one of these playbooks. I do like the term 'Warlock' and could see that being a way he's referred to in character.

Vignette "Oho! If it isn't my favorite warlock." "You know I don't do that anymore, Simon. I'm just a tailor." "Well, what can I say?" Simon smiled insincerely, hellfire dancing in his eyes. "Old habits die hard."

If he was precisely a Tainted, or a Wizard with an infernal source to his powers, or something in between doesn't strictly matter as far the current storyline is concerned. It's important that he bargained away his soul, got it back somehow, and now he's no longer "dangerous" or "a threat"... more or less.

Regarding magic itself, if I may be permitted a small digression...

World-Building Geekery I like the idea that there is no specific requirement for any given person (or perhaps specifically mortals?) to use magic. Anybody can do it. Sure, it takes a Wizard to generate and hold the raw power required to huck a ball of fire across a room in a combat situation. But given fifteen minutes, the proper focusing rune and incantations (plus a week or two of practice) and any loser off the street might be able to light a candle with magic. The trick is that the mortal world is chock-a-block full of snake-oil salesmen and fake practitioners prepared to deprive the unwitting masses of their money. So the main thing stopping your average hedge mage or wannabe witch from casting actual spells is knowledge, the ability to tell the real deal from some random B.S. that xXxDarkFyre420xXx posted to Reddit.

Anyways, that's sort of how I was originally intending to spin the tailor's magical abilities. His infernal past might not have had to specifically given him the ability to wield magic, just the knowledge that magic is real. That said, if we want magic to be more of a "gift" then it totally makes sense that a conduit was opened as part of his pact. He's been cut off from the source of power, but the pathways themselves remain open.

Another possible route is that the tailor has no actual "magic" at all (and never did). As you pointed out "the MC tells you what it will take to complete." Perhaps the 1-Armor suit isn't even something the tailor has to "enchant". Any tailor could craft such a suit provided that...

• The know Fairy cocoon silk is a thing
• The have a contact in the fae courts they can barter with
• They own a cold-iron needle so they can stitch the thing together without blunting their sewing machine.

So yeah, whatever angle ends up working best with the story, the other players, the group as a whole. I've been sketching out various ideas, but I'm flexible (within the bounds of the general framework) as to what path we take to get there.

Lastly we come to the Rival and the Patron. My gift to you. I certainly imagined them being part of the city scape, but with one or two caveats. Perhaps the Rival doesn't hate the tailor. Despise and detest, sure. But hate? For some reason the Tailor's existence has been permitted to continue up until this point (doesn't have to be five years, I just threw out a round number earlier). Perhaps 'hands off' was part of the deal for his emancipation? Perhaps the rival has just been consolidating his new power structure? Or the Rival has orders from his superiors to leave off? For fear of drawing attention to the whole affair? Or because the powers that be want him tempted back to the fold rather than just killed? After all, why let him get off with an easy death if you can be patient and then torture his soul for all eternity as punishment for his transgressions?

But the Patron? Oh yeah, he hates the Tailor. But I feel like he (or she or they? Who am I to judge) would work well as an impetus or call to action. The tailor has retired and been living his more-or-less quiet existence leveraging his knowledge of the systems to carve out a niche among the shadows. But what gets him back out on the streets? The Patron is back and out for revenge against both the Rival and the tailor? (Bad). The Patron is back and working with/for the Rival. Now they are both gunning for me (Double Bad). Or the Patron is gone. Deposed, demoted, defenestrated, deported. Demons presumably can't actually die, but he's busy being punished for his failures and certainly isn't something the tailor has to keep looking over his shoulder for. Except... recently there have been rumors. Certain signs appearing. A name best forgotten keeps cropping up in the rumor mill (Indeterminately Bad).

You've mentioned the Dragon coming with a broad storyline that might be what pulls the Veteran out of retirement. We might not need to use the Patron's return for that, but as the girl from the juice commercial says, "Why not both?"

I am still keeping a lot of this vague and hand-wavy so I can work in debts to PCs and NPCs later. I am one hundred percent down with working one of them into my emancipation. The only owed debt I have on the sheet is
* Someone keeps pulling your ass out of the fire. You owe them 2 Debts.
I don't know if it would be too much of a stretch to have "keeps pulling" become "once pulled"... but the fire was all too real.

[Wynamoinen]

Great, yeah, I agree that we want to leave lots of threads dangling, to be fleshed out either as we build PC connections, or as the game plays out.

I guess my main question is: could the Tailor do magic, in "the old days"? You can determine that as you like. Basically what I think is important is understanding, what did he leave behind (and, presumably, why)? That is, what kinds of things was he doing back then? Knowing this can help to build connections, I think. And it might help understand why he's getting pulled back in.

I think your world-building idea of where magic comes from makes total sense with both the mechanics of the system, and the idea of "the shadows". It works for me, though we should be sure to cross-check with other PCs' lore at some point before we make it official?

[hafrogman]

Originally Posted by Wynamoinen

It works for me, though we should be sure to cross-check with other PCs' lore at some point before we make it official?

Oh, absolutely. Especially if Vis (or anyone else) goes for the Wizard. I'd expect them to have a pretty heavy input on such a decision. We can post the question now, or wait until Archetype selections are finalized.

Since you're leaving it up to me, I think I will go with "no" for magic in the old days. It makes for a cleaner cut, rather than clinging to the remnants of his old powers.

So, let's look at his old life. With DC itself being a character, mortal politics was part of it, probably the "original sin" as it were.

I had originally been toying with the idea of having been tainted for a while, ageless, Dorian Gray style. But with both the Dragon and the Spectre going for characters out of time (I've been snooping a little), I don't want to edge in that territory. I need to recalibrate the timeline in my head. But there I will pick some humanitarian or international crisis from say the 90s or 00s, and a young, idealistic Tailor got caught up in advocacy... but was ultimately frustrated by the lack of any perceivable progress. That starts him on the path downward, with a new fiend friend offering unprecedented access to influential ears. Fund-raising dinners. Celebrities offering promotional endorsement, etc. They just need a favor or two along the way.

As far as the other side of the coin goes, I'm going to lean on the Tainted playbook again.

Your dark patron keeps you on Earth for a reason. Choose two jobs from the
list below:

• delivering threats and messages
• brokering demonic contracts

The Tailor (is it too on the nose to just call him Taylor?) served as his Patron's "face" in the city. He got close to important people in the city, offering favors and gifts. Anything to accrue debts for his master.

Ultimately, though, the leader of an NGO/social-advocacy group just wasn't valuable enough an asset. Wouldn't it be better if Taylor took a position with this major lobbying firm? He could still continue his own work on the side after all.

As a major player inside the beltway, and as his Patron's representative, it was important that Taylor looked the part. Expensive clothes, expensive cars, expensive women. But for him, the ultimate high came from feeling invincible. Under his Patron's aegis, with demonic powers at his fingertips (if he even needed them), he could walk anywhere, into any negotiation, with a politician, a mobster, a vampire or fey lord, secure in the knowledge that none of them would dare try and threaten him physically. After all, he was the biggest bad-ass in any room he occupied.

But all good things must come to an end. He'd left behind his earlier ideals in favor of power, money and success. His new position had him pushing agendas he didn't believe in, didn't care for, and eventually even ones in direct opposition to his personal beliefs... or at least what he used to think those beliefs were.

Still to be decided: was this a slow realization? Or was there a specific event that served as a catalyst? Either way, he now knew that he needed to find a way out. He couldn't let any of his "friends" know what he intended. Any or all of them could be compromised in exactly the same way he was, a puppet for a demonic power. So he had to look elsewhere for knowledge... and outside assistance (cue debt discussion)

[Wynamoinen]

That's all looking really intriguing! At first read, I don't think there are any action items in there for me, so I'll just keep watching for now. Please flag questions for me, if I missed them, or if they arise.

One thing that I did notice in wodine's thread, that I'll flag here too, is that I don't think you've answered your "Intro" questions yet? That's fine (and it seems likely you've indirectly answered a few already). But it will definitely be helpful to give direct answers to those questions, and record them as such, at some point.

[hafrogman]

Okay, I think I have everything more or less in place.
✅ Name chosen
✅ Intro completed
✅ Gear selected
✅ Workspace defined

A few notes of things I had left undefined that otherwise didn't fit into the Intro section.
I settled on healthcare as the original driving issue for Cole. It is an ongoing issue, which leaves the timeframe flexible if we need to tweak.

 

Backstory details While he was attending college, his younger sister was diagnosed with cancer, eventually succumbing after long, drawn-out and expensive battle. He was able to complete his degree (and law school) through scholarships, internships and the like. But the financial burden on his family was heavy. His father had been an independent tailor, but was forced to close down his shop and work for a chain once the mounting bills became too much. Even more than the grief his sister's passing caused, Cole witnessed first-hand the damage the U.S. healthcare system wrought upon his family, and he set out to fight for reform. Some time after Cole drifted apart from his parents, his father's health insurance cut his mental health support and stopped paying for his medications, which Cole feels ultimately led to his suicide. No doubt Cole could have used his money or influence to lend aid, but he just wasn't paying attention. There is lingering guilt for both not being there for his father when he needed him, but also for abandoning his earlier crusade and losing yet another family member to an unfeeling system.

On the subject of the Patron and the Rival, I thought it would be fun if demons in the modern era have taken to ironically adopting virtue names when interacting with mortals. So I present Justice, the patron and Charity, the rival. (Hence Cole referring to himself as the former Herald of Justice).

[Wynamoinen]

What did your patron want out of all those senators and congresspeople? In particular, what was the Patron's goals *within the City*? (Remember that we want to avoid national politics. But that the federal government does oversee the laws of DC.)

Are any of these Congressfolk that you pressured enemies or friends now? Lots of people like that become lobbyists when they leave office. It could be interesting if one of them became a lobbyist in support or opposition to your Patron's goals. They might therefore be Cole's ally or enemy now, depending.

Similarly with the Rival, what's their goal? The Patron seems to be high-status, focusing on congresspeople. I wonder if the Rival might be low-status, focusing closer to the street (street level issues that were being impacted by whatever your Patron's City shenanigans were)?

[hafrogman]

I think both the Patron and the Rival have the same goal, which is the acquisition of souls. What exactly they do with those souls is beyond mortal ken. Is Hell a real place? Are the souls devoured for sustenance? Are they simply amassed as a sort of currency or status symbol? The primary method of acquiring souls is to use temptation or leverage to push a human to the brink, then start the bargaining process. Create a problem, sell the solution. But mere need or deprivation are usually not sufficient to bring someone into the fold, you have to erode their foundations first, then rely on fear, uncertainty and doubt to make them crumble.

Where the Patron and Rival differed is in methodology and taste.
As you noted, Justice enjoyed the finer things in life, focusing on the souls of those he deemed 'important' and occasionally those he felt had potential (such as Cole's). He enjoyed the sins of excess: greed, gluttony and lust, using them to build a hedonistic empire of corruption among the elite of DC. He did take also a particular interest in quashing any attempts at self-determination for the city, letting the proposals wither slowly in committee instead of even letting them be voted down. It's so much more fun where you have all of congress to toy with, playing all the special interest groups off of each other, and none of them are sure of when or if the gravy train might run out.

But Charity is more classically minded, wrath is her favorite sin. Under her watchful eye, violent crime has risen among the city's poorest elements. Organized crime, disorganized crime, crimes of passion and crimes of hatred. She enjoys sowing the seeds of discontentment, and letting them fester to promote a feel of hopelessness.

I don't believe that Cole would have cultivated any long-term relationships among the politicians themselves, they were always a means to an end, and often out of town anyways. Instead, he tried to make friends out of people who could be useful to him. Jerry, the guard at the Capitol building who somehow never remembered to have Cole sign the visitor log. Antonio, the intern who was too busy looking at the pair of Wizards tickets in his hand to notice what papers Cole was reading over in the print lab. And Nita, who was a little too fond of trips to Atlantic City, and a little too bad at poker. Still, she was terribly useful and had found herself occupying a chief of staff position for a minor representative by the time Cole 'quit'. He heard she got offered a lucrative position at his old lobbying firm, and could indeed be working for a demon herself... but he has no idea on which side she may have ended up.

All in all, I do feel like Cole probably cut himself off from a lot of his old life, but I realize that's not helpful in terms of giving you NPCs to play with. Any of the above could be interjected as a returning element, but I'll work on a few more fleshed out elements.

We'll say the PI I mentioned before tracked Cole down in his new life (as a job for a client? or personal interest? Cole probably doesn't know for certain). I'll contemplating an ex-girlfriend to give him at least one longer-term non-demonic relationship in town, but he almost certainly ghosted her as well, so she probably (rightfully) hates his guts now.

I'll try and fill in a few new-life NPCs as well, the old lady who runs the gift store next door to his shop/apartment, the fae lordling who is an inveterate clothes horse and more or less keeps Cole in rent money, etc.

[Wynamoinen]

holy **** how did it just click in my head that the name of the basketball team is the "Wizards"?

[hafrogman]

Adding a note here because I keep forgetting how much Cole knows about Anne.

Regarding knowing Anne: Reading back over the notes we made, Cole's family has been haunted for generations, and with his knowledge of the occult he almost certainly recognizes the haunting for what it is. Perhaps he's even been given enough clues to research some of Anne's history... but I didn't get the feeling they've ever sat down and had a chat. So I don't think he'd recognize her voice itself, so much as recognizing a poltergeist attack when he sees one.