From 3ae361b8fa9d23b397970bb2efb38ee3c2a9b67c Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Andrew Cohn Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2025 12:31:00 -0800 Subject: [PATCH] vault backup: 2025-12-10 12:31:00 --- .obsidian/workspace.json | 21 +- Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md | 2 +- Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md | 348 +++++++++++++++++++++++ 3 files changed, 360 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-) create mode 100644 Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md diff --git a/.obsidian/workspace.json b/.obsidian/workspace.json index 56268b4..15fc7c1 100644 --- a/.obsidian/workspace.json +++ b/.obsidian/workspace.json @@ -13,12 +13,12 @@ "state": { "type": "markdown", "state": { - "file": "Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md", + "file": "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md", "mode": "preview", "source": true }, "icon": "lucide-file", - "title": "session 6" + "title": "Pappy Football" } } ] @@ -155,13 +155,13 @@ "state": { "type": "outline", "state": { - "file": "Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md", + "file": "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md", "followCursor": false, "showSearch": false, "searchQuery": "" }, "icon": "lucide-list", - "title": "Outline of session 6" + "title": "Outline of Pappy Football" } }, { @@ -204,22 +204,23 @@ "table-editor-obsidian:Advanced Tables Toolbar": false } }, - "active": "a00a1de0a2e471f0", + "active": "6e169ae6a9aed54f", "lastOpenFiles": [ - "Avalon/02_Sessions/session_5.md", - "Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md", + "Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline Crisis.md", "Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline Root System.md", + "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md", + "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Fouadriel “Fouad” Al-Mir.md", + "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Kalen D'Serris.md", + "Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md", + "Avalon/02_Sessions/session_5.md", "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Sebastian Castillo.md", "Avalon/06_Factions_Secrets/Avalon Factions.md", "Avalon/10_Canon/The Coherence.md", - "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Fouadriel “Fouad” Al-Mir.md", "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Chaz Ironwick.md", "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Millie Fairweather.md", "Avalon/05_Locations/Campus Locations.md", "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Hector Estrada.md", - "Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline Crisis.md", "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Elias Vae'lor.md", - "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Kalen D'Serris.md", "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Christopher Larkvale.md", "Kalen D'Sesrris.md", "Avalon/05_Locations/Avalon Locations.md", diff --git a/Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md b/Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md index 0a87e86..11b2682 100644 --- a/Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md +++ b/Avalon/02_Sessions/session 6.md @@ -9,7 +9,7 @@ tags: last: "[[session_5| Session 5]]" next: "[[session 7]]" --- -# Cold Open + # Cold Open >[!quote] Cold Open diff --git a/Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md b/Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..737fff4 --- /dev/null +++ b/Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md @@ -0,0 +1,348 @@ +# Pappy “Harlan” Football – History & Secrets +> **Use:** DM-facing lore. Don’t show to players as-is. +> **PC Link:** Grandfather of Joe “Football” – action figure, war flashbacks, Root trauma. +> **Optional Twist:** If you go with the “Joe is a golem” angle, Pappy was one too. + +--- + +## 1. Snapshot + +- **Full Name:** Harlan “Pappy” Football +- **Age at War:** Early 20s during the [[Leyline Crisis |Leyline War / Korrin Crisis ]] +- **Role:** Front-line infantry / field runner with minimal medic training +- **Post-War:** Became a small-town, red-blooded, flag-waving “America but fantasy” grandpa; never really processed what he saw +- **Current State:** + - Mundane understanding: Dead veteran, remembered through a **magical action figure** keepsake. + - Truth: A chunk of his **soul/imprint is entangled with the Root**, and the action figure is its easiest “handle.” + +--- + +## 2. Public Story / What Joe’s Family Believes + +This is what Joe, his parents (Fork & Maum), and the sisters (Kevlar & Devlin) would reasonably know. + +- Pappy fought in **[[Leyline Crisis| “the Leyline War”]]** decades ago. +- He was: + - “Brave as hell,” + - “Tougher than boiled leather,” + - One of the guys who “stood his ground when the sky was on fire over Korrin.” +- He never talked about specifics, just: + - “We pushed the line too hard,” + - “The mages in the nice coats broke the world and sent us to fix it with rifles.” +- After the war: + - Settled in the valley / Green Gully region, + - Worked a simple job (farm, factory, local guard – you can pick), + - Became the archetype Joe is trying to emulate: meat, beer, football, god, country. +- The **action figure**: + - Is a cheap, mass-produced “Heroes of Korrin” toy from just after the war, + - Enchanted with a basic “recorded phrase / minor guardian” spell, + - Pappy carried it as a joke/lucky charm once the kids were born, + - On his deathbed, he pressed it into Joe’s hands: “You keep ol’ Pappy with you. He’ll set you straight.” + +The family thinks any “possession” moments are: +- Joe being weird, +- Or just “that old toy acting up.” + +--- + +## 3. True History – Korrin & the Crisis + +### 3.1 Before Korrin + +- Harlan Football enlisted young: + - Poor-ish family, + - “Somebody has to go,” + - More practical grit than patriotism at first. +- Quickly developed a rep for: + - Doing the ugly jobs without flinching, + - Dragging wounded out under fire, + - Talking shit about officers but following orders anyway. + +### 3.2 At the Front + +- By the time he reaches **Korrin**, the war is in its late, desperate stage. +- His unit is stationed in trenches / ruined outskirts around the city: + - They can see the **Convergence Engine** on the skyline, + - They feel the Root pulses in the dirt under them. +- He experiences multiple “Engine surges”: + - Spells going off wrong, + - People half-teleporting and fusing with walls, + - Time “stuttering” mid-charge. + +He’s not a mage, but he’s not blind: +- He knows this is **not** just “stronger magic.” +- He hears rumors about “the pencil-necks in the tower” who keep turning the dial. + +### 3.3 The Day of the Korrin Crisis (Your Cold Open) + +- Pappy is in the trench on the day the Crisis peaks. +- He watches: + - Soldiers torn by leyline tears (your “bisected by reality” scene), + - Men fused with stone and infrastructure, + - Spells and wards screaming as the Root bucks. + +Crucial points: + +- He sees the first unmistakable **pattern** in the pulses – the “heartbeat that isn’t yours.” +- He hears officers and Root techs shouting about: + - “Convergence thresholds,” + - “Stability models,” + - “Branch cuts,” + - Though he doesn’t understand the math. + +He **does not** know the word “Coherence” at the time – that comes later or is buried in classified jargon. + +--- + +## 4. How Pappy Got Entangled With The Root + +This is the hinge that explains the action figure, the visions, and the Joe link. + +### 4.1 The Moment + +During the peak of the Crisis: + +- Pappy is: + - Standing / crouched directly above a **branch junction** in the Root network near Korrin, + - Holding onto a wounded soldier with one hand, + - Clutching a warded dog tag or charm (his, or the kid’s) in the other. + +- When the **decision** is made in the tower (D’serris / Oversight hitting the override that smears Coherence instead of letting it condense), there’s a huge spike in Root activity: + - The pulse hits the branch under his feet, + - Every charm, ward, and sympathetic link flares at once, + - For a split second, Pappy is: + - Fully “inside” the Root flow, + - While also being a big ball of raw human emotion: terror, rage, refusal to die. + +That moment leaves a **copy / imprint** of him in the network. + +Important nuance: + +- He doesn’t die right then. +- His **soul stays in his body**, lives out his life, +- But the Root keeps a **ghost image** of: + - His nervous system pattern, + - His emotional state, + - His basic “personality architecture.” + +Think: Root took a snapshot. + +### 4.2 The “Heroes of Korrin” Toy + +- After the war, the Convergence Engine & Root ops are classified to hell. +- But the propaganda machine: + - Pumps out toys, posters, and patriotic bullshit. +- The **action figure** Joe carries is: + - Factory-enchanted with **minor sympathy links**: + - Template: “bind to war dead, give comforting phrases, maybe a tiny shield charm.” + +Problem: +- Sloppy enchantment meets a war where the Root itself is weird. +- Pappy, as a Root-imprinted soldier, is a **perfect target** for the toy’s sympathetic hooks. +- When his family buys one with his unit’s insignia and he handles it regularly, the toy’s charm latches onto: + - The **Pappy-in-the-Root snapshot** instead of just a generic “hero template.” + +Result: +- Over time, the figurine becomes a **focus**: + - It can call up fragments of Pappy’s Root imprint, + - Pappy’s actual, aging soul gets “pulled” toward that channel, especially near death, + - After he dies, what’s left of him distributed between: + - A normal soul afterlife (however you want that to work), + - And **the Root-bound imprint**, now heavily linked to the toy. + +That’s why: + +- The action figure can: + - Occasionally “possess” Joe, + - Speak with Pappy’s voice, + - React to Root anomalies and D’serris. + +--- + +## 5. Pappy, D’serris, and the Leyline Crisis + +### 5.1 What Pappy Knows / Remembers + +From Pappy’s perspective: + +- “We were losing. The tower people wanted a silver bullet.” +- “They turned the grid into a weapon. The grid didn’t like it.” +- “Some analyst in the tower yelled about ‘pattern deviation’ and ‘non-random noise’… nobody listened until it was too late.” +- “Then somebody did something up there that ended the war overnight and broke everything underneath it.” + +He only later puts a name to D’serris: + +- He recognizes D’serris from post-war hearings / briefings / wanted posters / internal blame games. +- Pappy’s view: + - “He’s the bastard who pulled the lever that saved Korrin and fucked the rest of us.” + - That’s where the MAGA-esque “THOSE GODDAMN SORCERERS ARE RUINING THIS GODDAMN COUNTRY” energy comes from. + +### 5.2 What D’serris Knows About Pappy (Optional) + +If you want that connection: + +- D’serris might: + - Have logs of Root “snapshots” taken during the Crisis, + - Know there’s a **cluster of persistent imprints** tied to a particular unit in the trenches, + - Recognize Joe’s figurine / aura as: + - “One of the Korrin ghosts that never fully resolved.” + +He might not know it’s specifically “Harlan Football,” but he knows Joe is carrying **a Root echo from that day**. + +--- + +## 6. The Golem Angle – Pappy & Joe as Construct-Bloodline + +If you commit to Joe being a golem, Pappy being one too is the cleanest way to do it. + +### 6.1 War-Era Root Constructs (“Ley-Golems”) + +- During the Leyline War, one faction: + - Experimented with **Root-anchored constructs**: + - Artificial bodies grown / sculpted to: + - Be tough, + - Be repairable, + - Host a soul imprint that could be “backed up” in the Root. +- These soldiers: + - Look human, + - Bleed (sort of), + - Age slowly or unevenly, + - But have: + - Subtle tells (odd healing, unnatural resilience), + - A special reaction to Root spikes. + +Pappy Football was one of these: + +- Either: + - Volunteered for an “enhancement program” and had his soul bound to a constructed body, + - Or was resurrected from near-death into a body grown to be Root-compatible. +- The Crisis at Korrin: + - Supercharged this binding, + - Made his Root imprint especially strong. + +### 6.2 Post-War “Bloodline” + +- After the war, Pappy: + - Leaves service, tries to live a normal life. + - Marries / has “kids.” +- Mechanically / lore-wise: + - His children and grandchildren are: + - **Hybrids** – human souls in partially construct-compatible bodies, + - Or literal golem “descendants” grown with his template and implanted with new souls. + +Joe being a golem: + +- Fits his: + - Weirdly average but absurdly tough vibe, + - “Action figure inhabits me” moments, + - Occasional disconnect from normal physical limits (you can lean into this later). + +Pappy’s war-body: + +- Was a **prototype Joe**: + - Stronger, + - More tightly bound to the Root, + - Less stable. + +When he died, the Root imprint had a strong template to work from. + +### 6.3 How This Shows Up In Play + +Signs both Pappy and Joe are golem-type: + +- Joe: + - Recovers from injuries faster than he should, + - Maybe has faint “seams” or runes that only show under certain light, + - Magic that targets “humanoids” still works, but constructs-related stuff feels off around him. +- The action figure: + - Reacts to **Joe’s true nature** – it’s like two versions of the same pattern talking to each other. +- Pappy in visions: + - Might look: + - Slightly too symmetrical, + - A little “designed,” + - With scars that don’t behave like normal flesh. + +You can also give Joe some “oh shit” moment later: + +- Pappy: “You ever wonder why you bounce back the way you do, boy?” +- Root anomaly peels some of Joe’s “skin” metaphorically/visually in a vision, +- He gets a glimpse of what he really is. + +--- + +## 7. Pappy as a Table Tool (What You Can Use Him For) + +### 7.1 Lore Delivery + +- Pappy is your: + - On-demand war flashback, + - Walking testimony about Korrin, + - Emotional vector for “the Root is not a toy.” + +Whenever you need to: + +- Explain a past decision, +- Show the cost of D’serris’s choice, +- Make the leyline feel like real horror, + +You have Pappy “ride” Joe for a scene. + +### 7.2 Moral Compass / Anti-Compass + +- He’s not neutral. He’s *biased as hell*: + - Hates magic bureaucracy, + - Distrusts Oversight, + - Sees Root stuff as tools that got out of hand. +- That’s useful: + - Sometimes he’s right (“don’t overclock the node, dumbass”), + - Sometimes he’s dangerously wrong (“cut the trunk, who cares about the casualties?”). + +You can put Joe in situations where: + +- Pappy urges the “war solution,” +- Friends / teachers urge the “school solution,” +- Joe has to choose. + +### 7.3 Coherence Hook + +- The Coherence recognizes Pappy’s imprint as: + - A familiar pattern from when it was “born.” +- It may: + - Use Pappy as a voice, + - Copy his mannerisms, + - Try to talk to Joe in Pappy’s voice even when the action figure is *not* active. + +Creepy angle: + +- Joe hears Pappy saying: + - “We pushed the line too far…” + - Then the voice shifts mid-sentence, same tone but wrong rhythm: + - “…and we are still pushing. I remember you. You remember me.” + +--- + +## 8. Player-Facing Hooks (Teasers You Can Leak) + +Stuff you *can* let slip in-game, piece by piece: + +- Pappy: + - Was at Korrin, + - Saw the worst of the Crisis, + - Calls D’serris “the bastard who saved the city and broke the world.” +- The toy: + - Occasionally says things Joe never heard Pappy say in life, + - Reacts to Root pulses, + - Warms up or vibrates near subnodes. +- In visions: + - Pappy sometimes seems to know more than a normal ground grunt should: + - Glimpses of the control tower, + - Awareness of the “heartbeat” pattern. + +If you flip on the golem angle later: + +- You can reveal: + - Pappy’s body wasn’t entirely natural, + - Joe’s never truly been “just a regular guy,” + - The Root has a blueprint for “Football soldiers” tucked inside itself. + +---