vault backup: 2025-12-10 12:31:00

.obsidian/workspace.json

@@ -13,12 +13,12 @@
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-              "title": "session 6"
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@@ -155,13 +155,13 @@
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+              "title": "Outline of Pappy Football"
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@@ -204,22 +204,23 @@
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+    "Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy Football.md",
+    "Avalon/03_NPCs_Students/Fouadriel “Fouad” Al-Mir.md",
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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

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.
+
+---