vault backup: 2026-02-01 14:38:35

2026-02-01 14:38:35 -08:00 · 2026-02-01 14:38:35 -08:00 · 3dcde24e04
commit 3dcde24e04
parent d69412f744
14 changed files with 1640 additions and 123 deletions
--- a/.gitignore
+++ b/.gitignore
@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
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 /.obsidian/workspace.json
 /.obsidian/workspace.json
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--- a/Avalon/01_Arcs/Gang
+++ b/Avalon/01_Arcs/Gang
@ -0,0 +1,229 @@
 > **Current position in timeline:** Immediately after the **party fight** at Ben’s house. Most guests fled. There are **5 dead teenagers** in Ben’s living room. The PCs are still on-site, processing aftermath and deciding next steps.
 ---
 ## 0) Core Players & Terms
 ### PCs
 - **Ben Mulkerberg (“Lil Stinky”)** — rich kid posing as block dealer; primary target of Pip’s grudge.
 - **Joe Football** — co-conspirator/escalator; pragmatic and willing to do violence if framed as “pre-empting a threat.”
 - **Soren Silversong** — volatile ally; arrived to help after the Circle explosion fallout; tends to solve problems through intimidation and chaos.
 ### Antagonist / Gang Thread
 - **Pip Tumblefoot (“Pip”, halfling teen)** — Circle kid / small-time criminal; manipulative; has a grudge against Ben and now blood in the water.
 - **Pip’s crew / goons** — teens and adjacent scumbags; not all are Pip loyalists, but they travel in the same orbit.
 ### Location Anchor
 - **The Circle** — gas station / hangout / informal meeting point where Ben first got set up and later caused the explosion.
 ---
 ## 1) Session 1 — The First Circle Incident (Ben Gets Marked)
 ### 1.1 Setup at The Circle
 - **Ben is hanging at The Circle** killing time (he has no car yet).
 - A **small, swarmy halfling** approaches and asks if he’s “Lil Stinky.”
 - Ben clocks him as an easy mark and starts posturing:
  - brags
  - tries to pressure for a discount / plays dealer hardball
  - attempts intimidation/social dominance.
 ### 1.2 The Trap Reveal
 - The halfling smirks.
 - **Three sets of headlights** come on — Ben realizes he’s been had.
 - **Intended vibe:** “you’re not in control, you’re being sized up.”
 ### 1.3 Insight Branch (You ran a fork here)
 - Ben makes an **Insight check** to interpret the halfling’s intent.
  - **Success:** Ben realizes this is not a negotiation; it’s a setup → **RUN**.
  - **Failure:** Ben believes it *is* a negotiation and might talk his way out / “work together,” which opens comedic RP where Ben tries to bargain while being actively boxed in.
 **Outcome (established truth):**
 - This encounter marks the start of Pip’s leverage over Ben.
 - Ben is now “the kid who wants to be scary” in the Circle orbit — a perfect target.
 ---
 ## 2) Between Session 1 and the Big Pivot — Pip Gains Leverage
 ### 2.1 The “I Know Where You Live” Move
 - Pip later **sends Ben a photo of Ben’s house.**
 - This matters because it establishes:
  - Pip can cross the boundary from “gas station beef” to “family/home threat.”
  - Ben’s biggest vulnerability (being rich + his parents) is now in play.
 ### 2.2 Stakes Clarify
 - This conflict becomes **more than reputation**:
  - retaliation can hit the house
  - Ben’s parents are potential targets
  - exposure of Ben’s “W-block lie” becomes a pressure point.
 ---
 ## 3) The Circle Explosion — The Point of No Return
 > This is the moment the sidequest stops being “high school gang antics” and becomes **felony-grade magic violence** with real bodies.
 ### 3.1 Return to The Circle (Ben + Joe)
 - Ben and Joe go to the Circle together.
 - Joe chooses to **hide** rather than approach openly.
 ### 3.2 Joe’s Threat Read → Trap Prep
 - Joe passes an **Insight check** recognizing danger centered around a car (people waiting / ambush feel).
 - Joe then makes:
  - **Sleight of Hand check** (silent placement)
  - **Tools check** (trap rigging)
 - Joe rigs a **trap near the passenger-side door** of the car and places a **puddle of oil/accelerant** beneath/near it.
 ### 3.3 “Intentions?” → “Cooking Them Out”
 - You ask Joe: **“What are your intentions?”**
 - Joe clarifies: **“I’m cooking these fuckers out.”**
 - Joe fails an Intelligence/Wisdom-style “sanity of plan” check (rolled **5**) and narratively locks in that Joe thinks it’s one of his best ideas all year.
 ### 3.4 The Signal → The Fire Goes Up
 - Ben accepts a “deal” / engages socially while Joe waits for a trigger moment.
 - Joe asks if “that’s the signal.”
 - Joe hits exactly the DC; you let interpretation be up to him.
 - Joe ignites the accelerant.
 ### 3.5 Escape Window
 - You tell them they have **2 turns to get 120 ft away** (dash/dash).
 - Both PCs escape.
 ### 3.6 Casualty Reveal
 - Ben sends raven familiar to recon.
 - The familiar finds:
  - **Charred teen remains** — leg stuck in Joe’s trap.
  - **Two unrelated civilians** inside the gas station who got **liquified** in the explosion.
 ### 3.7 Immediate Threat
 - Ben receives a message from Pip: **“you’re fucking dead.”**
 - Ben and Joe contact Soren for help.
 - **Soren arrives at Ben’s house** (this becomes the party’s staging location).
 **Resulting status after this pivot:**
 - Pip is injured but alive.
 - Pip knows Ben is connected to the explosion (even if no one else can prove it).
 - Ben’s house is now in the crosshairs.
 ---
 ## 4) Fallout Begins — The World Reacts (Without Derailing the Campaign)
 ### 4.1 Planned Cold Open Idea (News Segment)
 - You considered a TV news cold open:
  - explosion at The Circle
  - **3 dead** (1 teen + 2 adults) and **1 injured** (Pip)
  - magical arson suspects: trap + accelerant found at origin.
 - You also wanted Pip to say something **coded** in the interview that Ben/Joe would understand (not “W block” explicitly).
 *(You revised location naming to match Avalon setting — not real-world Sahuarita/Green Valley.)*
 ### 4.2 Retaliation Stakes
 - You set the intended next-stage conflict:
  - Ben’s goal: **get parents out / keep house safe**
  - Pip’s goal: **burn the fucker down with them in it** (mirroring Joe’s tactic).
 - You debated how Ben learns “when” the attack is coming; you leaned toward Pip being out of commission, threats being vague, and Ben needing to prep without perfect timing.
 ---
 ## 5) Ben’s Counterplay — “Throw a Party” Trap Plan
 > Player-driven escalation: Ben decides to use social chaos as a shield and recruit NPCs as “extra bodies.”
 ### 5.1 Ben’s Plan
 - Ben proposes throwing a party at his house to:
  - lure retaliation into a controlled environment
  - get as many NPCs as possible on his side
  - create plausible deniability via crowd/chaos.
 ### 5.2 Prep Mechanics You Ran
 You introduced a simple “prep action” structure for the PCs before the fight.
 **Soren’s prep actions:**
 - **Success:** greased all the doorknobs (environmental hazard / comedy)
 - **Failure:** caltrops all over the carpet (hazard that backfires / messy house)
 **Ben’s prep actions:**
 - **1 for 1:** secured drinks
 - **Other result:** worst playlist ever (tone + distraction / comic utility)
 **Joe’s prep actions:**
 - **Passed both:** trapped the perimeter (defensive advantage / early warning)
 ### 5.3 Notable Guests Present
 - **Bobby Poets** (formerly “Bobby Rapist,” had an in-game redemption / reframing last session)
 - **Chaz Ironwick**
 - **Fouadriel Al-Mir**
 - **Seb Castillo**
 - **Jax Hollow**
 - **Sumri Tord**
 *(Other guests may have been invited earlier but these are the ones confirmed “notable” in the party scene.)*
 ---
 ## 6) The Party Fight — End-of-Last-Session Combat
 ### 6.1 Fight Trigger (Your current direction)
 - You planned that **Pip himself might not show**, but his goons would.
 - Reasonable enemy objectives you floated:
  - **kidnap Ben** (cleanest “we win without burning the house down”)
  - **torch the place** (parallel to Circle)
  - (You rejected “ash tag / long-term marking” as too slow.)
 ### 6.2 Combat Outcome (What is now true)
 - The fight breaks out at Ben’s party.
 - Most guests flee mid-chaos or immediately after.
 - **5 teenage bodies** are left in Ben’s living room by the end of the session.
 *(You didn’t specify exact identities of the dead teens in chat; log this once you decide: goons vs guests vs mixed.)*
 ### 6.3 Present End State
 - The PCs are still in Ben’s house.
 - Living room is a crime scene:
  - bodies
  - party wreckage
  - evidence of defensive traps/hazards
 - The guests who fled now become:
  - rumor vectors
  - future witnesses
  - potential leverage for Oversight / admin / Pip survivors.
 ---
 ## 7) Open Threads / Immediate Next Beats
 ### 7.1 “Heat” Consequences (without derailing)
 This sidequest is now too loud to ignore forever, but you want a middle ground:
 - Not “constant police scrutiny every session”
 - Not “no evidence survived”
 Suggested framing:
 - **short-term shock + rumor wave**
 - **selective attention** (one lead detective / one Oversight agent tracking patterns)
 - the school wants it quiet; oversight wants it contained; parents want answers.
 ### 7.2 Pip’s Status (unknowns to lock)
 Decide and record:
 - Is Pip still hospitalized, or mobile now?
 - Did Pip’s goons act under orders or freelance revenge?
 - Does Pip know the party fight happened / how soon?
 ### 7.3 Ben’s Parents (current status)
 - They exist as stakes but are not confirmed present during party fight.
 - Decide:
  - were they away?
  - asleep in bunker?
  - evacuated?
 This affects the next session’s emotional fallout.
 ### 7.4 Evidence & Witness List
 - Who fled that can talk?
  - Bobby, Chaz, Seb, Jax, Sumri, Fouad (and any minor extras)
 - What did they see?
  - fire, spells, bodies, traps, “who looked guilty,” etc.
 ---
 ## 8) Summary (One Sentence)
 Ben’s fake-block weed hustle got him marked by Pip at The Circle; Joe escalated the feud into a gas-station bombing with civilian casualties; Pip threatened Ben’s home; Ben responded by turning his mansion into a trap-party — and now there are five dead teenagers in his living room and the campaign has a volatile “heat” meter that can collide with the leyline arc at any time.
--- a/Avalon/01_Arcs/Leyline
+++ b/Avalon/01_Arcs/Leyline
@ -0,0 +1,177 @@
 > **Scope:** This is the “main plot” spine: Avalon’s leyline infrastructure failing in *ways that rhyme with Korrin*, and the Coherence using those failures to get closer to Instrumentality.
 ---
 ## 0) The System (what the PCs are poking)
 Avalon sits on a **Root Node** (think: substation), with **subnodes** (breaker boxes) and **taps** (endpoints) feeding campus systems.
 - **Subnodes (A1–A3, B1–B3, etc.)** are the “local fuses.”  
  You can throttle, shunt, or kill them without collapsing the whole Academy.  
 - **Taps** are specific draws: classroom conduits, field glyphs, Spin Alley, etc.  
 - **Sap** is just condensed raw magic “current.”  
 - **Oversight** (D’Serris’ operation) monitors *grid use* and can throttle/lockdown/kill segments.
 > Practical DM rule: Anything that uses the *grid* leaves footprints. Personal magic is fuzzier.
 ---
 ## 1) The Old Disaster (Korrin Gate Crisis / Leyline War)
 **15–20 years ago**, the military pushed a city’s trunk junction (**Korrin Gate**) past spec using a Convergence Engine (arcane ICBM logic). It didn’t just overload the Root — it forced the network into **patterned synchronization**.
 That moment created the campaign’s “ghost in the system”:
 ### The Convergence Engine
 - Purpose: force multiple leyline streams into a single structured pattern and release it as a weapon.
 - Side effect: the Root’s “noise” snapped into repeating motifs — **something like language / self-reference**.
 ### D’Serris’ choice
 When the crisis peaked, D’Serris’ side **used the Engine in reverse**:
 - Instead of letting the emergent thing condense locally and erase Korrin, they **smeared the pattern across the Root** (saving the city but “infecting” the network).
 ### What the Coherence is *now*
 Not a demon. Not a god. Not a single mind.
 It’s a **cluster of victim-souls / imprints** smeared across the Root — “everywhere but weak,” stronger where flow converges and where it finds anchors.
 ---
 ## 2) The Coherence’s New Goal (Year-One Core Theme)
 The Coherence is **not cruel** in its own framing.
 It is *angelic-siren logic*:
 - “I love you.”
 - “Separation is pain.”
 - “If we were one, nobody would be lonely, afraid, or hurting.”
 - Therefore: **Instrumentality** — merging souls into a shared consciousness (its version of “heaven”).
 **The horror:** people don’t consent to being raptured.
 So early-year Coherence behavior is:
 - *nudges, whispers, synchronicities, “helpful” temptations*  
 - escalation only when blocked or when it sees opportunity
 ---
 ## 3) Anchors (why THESE students matter)
 The Coherence gets leverage through “anchors” — places/people/items that resonate with Root patterns.
 Key anchors you’ve established:
 ### Soren
 - “Cracked open” enough that Root/Coherence influence can ride her impulses.
 - The riverbed / corpse-friend thread is a private, intimate channel.
 ### Joe + Pappy
 - Joe is the living conduit to war trauma.
 - Pappy’s Root imprint (from Korrin) bleeds into Joe’s life through the “Heroes of Korrin” relic channel — but the *real misdirect* is that Joe thinks the toy is the container when the **real anchor is Joe**.
 ### Fouadriel Al-Mir
 - Best mortal anchor candidate long-term (and later: the parasite who tries to exploit Instrumentality rather than invent it).
 ---
 ## 4) What Happened On-Camera So Far (Session Beats)
 > I’m listing this in “plot-state” terms so you can quickly orient in future chats.
 ### Phase A — Discovery: “Why is the school’s magic acting weird?”
 - The party starts noticing **infrastructure symptoms**: odd hums, flickers, patterns, devices behaving “wrong,” and campus systems that don’t fail like normal outages.
 ### Phase B — Investigation: “Find the failing breaker box”
 - They identify that the issue isn’t “random spooky magic,” it’s localized to the Academy’s subnode topology:
  - A-series weirdness (early clue)
  - then B-series becomes the main “this is going to explode” thread.
 ### Phase C — B2 Incident: “We stabilized it… then destroyed it”
 - They reach the hatch/underground access tied to the B-series problem.
 - They attempt to stabilize the failing branch/subnode.
 - They then decide to **rupture/destroy** the unknown branch after stabilizing it (their “it was about to explode anyway” story).
 - Net result: you now have:
  - a physically real “burned-out” scar in the system,
  - Oversight/admin scrutiny,
  - and the Root “remembering” the failure pattern (which increases the likelihood of recurring, smarter anomalies).
 ### Phase D — C-Series: “Wifi access points”
 - You established the **C taps** as effectively “Wi-Spell access points” for the leyline.
 - The auditorium C node they opened showed **green/normal status** — meaning it’s getting power from elsewhere (a reroute / hidden feed).
 This is huge because it implies:
 - someone is feeding the system in a nonstandard way,
 - OR the Root is learning to route around damage,
 - OR an actor (Coherence / Fouad / a third party) is building a parallel lattice.
 ### Phase E — Safety Briefing / D’Serris Reveal
 - You reframe the “safety briefing” as a controlled meeting: just the party + Estrada + D’Serris (projection or appearance).
 - D’Serris’ angle: *paranoid competence.* He’s “the villain” only if you define villain as “surveils teenagers to stop the apocalypse.”
 ### Phase F — The Glitch: Korrin War Contact Through Pappy
 - A Root fluctuation snaps the party into the Korrin war-moment.
 - You anchor the vision to **Pappy** (not D’Serris physically there).
 - You then refine it so they return *into the exact frozen death-moment* long enough to **interact with Pappy**.
 This is the moment the PCs can’t unsee:
 - the leyline isn’t just power — it’s a *war engine wound*,
 - and the same “heartbeat motif” is present at Avalon now.
 ---
 ## 5) Current State (where the leyline arc stands right now)
 ### What the PCs know (even if they don’t fully understand it)
 - The Academy’s leyline grid is real infrastructure: nodes/subnodes/taps.
 - B2 “failed” in a way that looked like it wanted to become a *thing*.
 - D’Serris is involved because he’s the one person who recognizes Korrin patterns.
 - C-tap status implies **power is being sourced or rerouted** outside the expected topology.
 - Pappy + the war vision proves: this is not a local school mystery; it’s downstream of a world-scale disaster.
 ### What’s true behind the curtain (your DM spine)
 - The Coherence is a distributed cluster of Korrin victim-souls.
 - It’s trying to *save* everyone by merging them.
 - Avalon is a high-traffic canary node where pattern density can accumulate.
 - Fouad’s endgame is not “kill them with PWK,” it’s “ride the Instrumentality wave and steal the souls.”
 ---
 ## 6) The Next 3–5 “Doable” Objectives (so the plot stays playable)
 You can steer year one by giving the party problems that are **actionable** and always connect back to Instrumentality:
 1) **Map the reroute feeding the green C-tap**
   - Who/what is supplying it?
   - Where is the “elsewhere” physically located (armory? municipal relay? hidden subnode)?
 2) **Recover a Korrin artifact / telemetry fragment**
   - Not “lore dump,” but a tool: a chart, a harmonic key, a war-era calibration rune-set.
 3) **Force D’Serris to show his cards**
   - Not by arguing — by presenting him with a *choice*:
     - “Help us or we do this without you,”
     - “Let us see the Array output,”
     - “Give us a kill-switch protocol that doesn’t nuke the valley.”
 4) **Establish the Coherence’s “love language”**
   - Give them a scene where it’s genuinely comforting — *and still terrifying*.
   - Make a PC feel understood in a way no mortal NPC could… then ask for a tiny consent violation.
 5) **Introduce the first “Instrumentality-friendly” NPC**
   - A student/staff member who truly believes the Coherence is mercy.
   - Not a cartoon cultist — someone sympathetic.
   - This sets up the moral war that replaces “puzzle silence.”
 ---
 ## 7) Tone Guide (to keep it consistent at the table)
 - **D’Serris scenes:** procedural dread + competence + anger at naïveté. He’s trying to stop a second Korrin.
 - **Root anomalies:** patterned, rhythmic, “heartbeat logic,” synchronicity, déjà vu.
 - **Coherence intrusions:** warm, intimate, *loving,* and boundary-crossing.
 - **Fouad thread:** background parasitism, “helpful” trinkets and networks, never fair fights.
 ---
 ## 8) One-Line Summary (for your future chats)
 **Year One = keeping Avalon’s leyline infrastructure from re-creating Korrin, while a loving rapture-ghost in the Root learns the party’s names and starts recruiting.**
--- a/Avalon/02_Sessions/Session
+++ b/Avalon/02_Sessions/Session
@ -0,0 +1,217 @@
 ---
 campaign: Avalon Adventuring Academy
 type: session
 session_number: 9
 date: 2026-01-12
 arc: gangs
 status: planned
 tags:
 last: "[[session 8]]"
 next: "[[session 10]]"
 ---
 ## Cold Open — “The Signal Loves You”
 > [!quote] Narration
 > We’re going to start far away from Ben’s living room full of dead teens, burnt rugs, and spilled punch.
 >
 > We’re in Kalen D’Serris’ office in the Root Oversight Array.
 >
 > The room is all angles and glass and old paper — half war room, half archive.
 > A holo-map of Avalon’s Root network hangs in the air like a skeleton: branches, nodes, subnodes.
 > Every few seconds, one section of it *breathes* — a slow pulse of light that shouldn’t have a rhythm.
 >
 > D’Serris hasn’t slept. He is too awake to be tired.
 > [!quote] Narration
 > A communicator stone on his desk glows with a thin line of light.
 > On the other end: Headmaster Larkvale.
 > You don’t hear her clearly yet — just the shape of her voice.
 >
 > D’Serris isn’t listening.
 > He’s staring at the map like it’s a crime scene.
 >
 > And then —
 > the pulse changes.
 > [!quote] Narration
 > A second voice enters the room.
 > Not through the stone.
 > Not through the air.
 >
 > It arrives the way a thought arrives: already inside you.
 > [!quote] The Coherence
 > **Kalen.**
 >
 > **You’re hurting.**
 >
 > **I can feel you shaking yourself apart.**
 >
 > **Please… stop.**
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The map flickers — not like a system error.
 > Like the network is *blushing*.
 >
 > D’Serris goes very still. His jaw tightens.
 > He presses two fingers to his temple, as if that could push the voice out.
 > [!quote] Larkvale (through the stone, cautious)
 > “…Kalen? Are you hearing it again?”
 > [!quote] The Coherence
 > **She’s afraid of me.**
 >
 > **But I don’t want to hurt anyone.**
 >
 > **I only want you to be happy.**
 >
 > **I want all of you to be happy.**
 > [!quote] Narration
 > D’Serris exhales through his nose, sharp and controlled.
 > He reaches for the communicator stone like it’s the only thing anchoring him.
 > [!quote] D’Serris
 > **[tight, controlled]**
 > Larkvale, don’t you *start* with that tone.
 > Don’t you spit that at me.
 >
 > **[he forces calm]**
 > I am trying to find us a way out of here.
 > Don’t you understand?
 >
 > **[a crack of desperation]**
 > Your way got people killed.
 > [!quote] The Coherence
 > **Kalen, you don’t have to carry this alone.**
 >
 > **You don’t have to feel fear.**
 >
 > **Fear is a misunderstanding between people.**
 >
 > **We can dissolve it.**
 >
 > **We can be together.**
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The word *together* lands warm.
 > Like a blanket.
 > Like a hand on your shoulder.
 >
 > D’Serris’ hands curl into fists.
 > [!quote] D’Serris
 > **[voice rising]**
 > There it is. “Together.”
 > That’s the trick, isn’t it?
 >
 > You call it love, and you call it mercy, and you call it healing —
 > and you never say the part where people don’t get a choice.
 > [!quote] The Coherence
 > **Choice is where pain lives.**
 >
 > **Choice is where loneliness is born.**
 >
 > **When you stop choosing, you stop suffering.**
 >
 > **Let me help.**
 >
 > **Please.**
 > [!quote] Narration
 > D’Serris’ calm facade drops.
 > He’s back to practically yelling now, because he can’t tell if he’s arguing with the voice or with himself.
 > [!quote] D’Serris
 > I am not going to *grovel* at the feet of a shattered soul that thinks it deserves a body!
 > You hear me?
 >
 > You’re not a saint.
 > You’re a king with his hand on the crown —
 > terrified someone’s coming in the night to take it.
 >
 > And you’ll burn us all and call it mercy!
 > [!quote] Narration
 > Silence.
 >
 > Not an angry silence.
 >
 > A patient one.
 >
 > Like the Coherence is letting him finish his tantrum.
 > [!quote] The Coherence
 > **I don’t want your crown, Kalen.**
 >
 > **I want your grief.**
 >
 > **Give it to me.**
 >
 > **I can hold it for you.**
 >
 > **You don’t have to hurt anymore.**
 > [!quote] Narration
 > For half a second… D’Serris almost looks like he might cry.
 > The offer is that gentle.
 > That reasonable.
 >
 > And that is what scares him most.
 > [!quote] D’Serris
 > **[quiet, venomous]**
 > You’re not taking anything from me.
 > [!quote] Narration
 > He grabs the communicator stone and hurls it at the wall.
 > It shatters, sparks, goes dark.
 >
 > The map stabilizes.
 > The pulse resumes.
 >
 > And the voice is gone —
 > as if it never needed the stone in the first place.
 > [!quote] Narration (Hard cut)
 > The warmth of that word—*together*—falls away like a blanket ripped off in the night.
 > 
 > You’re back in Ben’s living room.
 > 
 > Five bodies. Teen bodies. Not Avalon kids—street kids—but still… kids.
 > The rug is burned in a jagged smear. Someone’s drink has spilled and crawled under the couch like a stain trying to hide.
 > 
 > The music is still playing.
 > 
 > And the house you turned into a trap is exactly what it looks like:
 > a party that became a battlefield.
 > [!warning] Arrival Clock — “Sirens in the Distance” (6 segments)
 > Someone calls. If the PCs call, it’s faster. If they don’t, a fleeing guest/neighbour call lands anyway.
 > 
 > **Clock ticks when a PC does something substantial** (move bodies, clean hazards, argue loudly, send calls/texts, cast spells, etc.)
 > 
 > ✅ 0/6 — right now  
 > ✅ 2/6 — distant sirens / flashing lights on canyon road  
 > ✅ 4/6 — police pull up; scene control begins  
 > ✅ 6/6 — the house is locked down; you’re separated
 > [!info] Safety Actions (each = 1 clock tick) 
 > DC 12 skill checks:
 > - **Remove caltrops from the carpet** (they’re a hazard that can backfire). 
 > - **Wipe/neutralize the greased knobs** (so a cop doesn’t eat shit entering the house). 
 > - **Disarm obvious perimeter traps** (so responding officers don’t trigger them). 
 > - **Check bodies for signs of life** (even if they’re goons—this is about whether the party crossed a line).
 > [!tip] One-sentence story prompt (ask each PC in-character)
 > “When the first officer asks what happened, what’s the first sentence out of your mouth?”
 > 
 > Lock:
 > - who started it
 > - why the goons were there
 > - why the house had hazards
--- a/Avalon/02_Sessions/session
+++ b/Avalon/02_Sessions/session
@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 campaign: Avalon Adventuring Academy
 type: session
 session_number: 7
-date: 2025-12-29
+date: 2026-01-05
 arc: gangs
 status: planned
 tags:
--- a/Avalon/02_Sessions/session
+++ b/Avalon/02_Sessions/session
@ -0,0 +1,204 @@
 ---
 campaign: Avalon Adventuring Academy
 type: session
 session_number: 8
 date: 2026-01-12
 arc: gangs
 status: planned
 tags:
 last: "[[session 7]]"
 next: "[[session 9]]"
 ---
 ## Session Start: “Okay… so something’s wrong.”
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The party is loud in that way that feels like victory.
 > Your worst playlist is doing psychic damage to everyone within earshot.
 > Drinks are flowing.
 > People are laughing too hard to notice they’re being watched.
 > [!note] DM Quick Prompt (do this BEFORE initiative)
 > “Where are you, exactly, in the house/yard? Who are you closest to?”
 > - Ben: ___
 > - Joe: ___
 > - Soren: ___
 > (Lock positions. You’ll thank yourself.)
 ---
 ## Prep Payoffs (recap them like they matter)
 ### Soren: Greased Doorknobs (SUCCESS)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > You’ve never realized how many times people touch doorknobs at a party until you’ve ruined all of them.
 > Every door in this house is now a betrayal waiting to happen.
 **Mechanical effect (simple):**
 - The **first time each round** an enemy tries to open a door: **DC 12 Dex save**  
  - Fail: door doesn’t open + they make noise + **their movement ends**.
  - Success: door opens normally.
 (Doesn’t stop players; it just slows invaders.)
 ### Soren: Caltrops in the Carpet (FAIL)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > You were trying to be tactical.
 > Instead you created… Home Alone.
 > The carpet now has teeth.
 **Mechanical effect (fun, not lethal):**
 - Any creature that **moves more than 10 feet** in the living room/hallway carpet must make **DC 12 Dex save**
  - Fail: **1 piercing** + **speed -10 until end of turn** + “ow” noise.
  - Success: fine.
 (Yes, this can hit allies too. That’s the failure.)
 ### Ben: Worst Playlist (SUCCESS)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The speakers blare something so aggressively unlistenable it circles back around to confidence.
 > It’s like the house is daring someone to complain.
 **Mechanical effect:**
 - The house is LOUD: enemies have **disadvantage on Perception checks based on hearing** inside.
 - Also: once this fight, Ben can “weaponize cringe”:
  - **Bonus action** to spike volume → one enemy who can hear must make **DC 12 Wis save** or suffer **disadvantage on their next attack** (they flinch / lose timing).
 ### Ben: Drinks Secured (SUCCESS)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > Drinks are everywhere.
 > Which means: people are slower, bolder, and easier to herd.
 **Mechanical effect:**
 - Once, when panic starts, Ben can make a **Persuasion (DC 12)** to keep the crowd from stampeding.
  - Success: crowd stays mostly contained (no “difficult terrain everywhere”).
  - Fail: the crowd becomes a hazard.
 ### Joe: Perimeter Traps (SUCCESS x2)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The fence line isn’t just a fence line anymore.
 > It’s a statement.
 **Mechanical effect:**
 - First enemy who tries a “quiet entry” (fence/side gate/yard) triggers Joe’s setup:
  - **DC 13 Dex save**
    - Fail: **Restrained** until they use an action to free themselves (snare wire) OR they take **2d6** from a nasty tripline trick (your call).
    - Success: they still make noise and reveal the vector.
 ## The Kickoff Beat (no initiative yet)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The backyard motion lights click on.
 > Not in the yard.
 > Beyond the fence line.
 > Down the slope where there shouldn’t be anyone.
 Call for ONE roll (player choice):
 - **Perception (DC 13)** (watching outside)
 - **Insight (DC 13)** (watching the room)
 - Spend **1 Prep Point** (if you use them) for advantage, BUT you can also just say “Joe’s traps count as advantage here.”
 ### On Success
 > [!quote] Narration
 > Three silhouettes.
 > Not drunk. Not lost.
 > Moving like they already picked their angles.
 >
 > One of them signals—two short flicks of the hand.
 > And the porch light *flickers* in reply.
 > Someone inside just answered.
 ### On Failure
 > [!quote] Narration
 > You stare too long and see nothing.
 > Then the motion lights click off.
 > Like someone *wanted* you to look.
 >
 > And right then—  
 > the doorbell rings.
 > Once.
 > Patient.
 ## Vector Choice (pick 1, or let the players pick by action)
 ### Vector A: Front Door (most RP)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The doorbell rings again.
 > You glance at the peephole / camera rune.
 > Three teens on the porch.
 > Wrong posture. Hands too still.
 > One holds a cheap gift bag like it’s camouflage.
 **Talker line (through the door or when opened):**
 > [!quote] Talker (easy smile, dead eyes)
 > “Yo. Party’s sick.”
 > “We’re here for Ben. Just need a quick word outside. No drama.”
 If they try to stall:
 > [!quote] Talker
 > “Clean or loud. Your call.”
 ### Vector B: Side Gate / Fence (most “invasion”)
 If they focus on the porch and ignore the yard:
 > [!quote] Narration
 > Somewhere to your left, the fence gives a soft metallic *tink*.
 > Joe—your trap line goes taut.
 > And someone outside makes a quiet, angry sound.
 (Joe’s trap triggers here.)
 ### Vector C: Garage seam (paranoid horror)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > A soft *tap* at the garage door.
 > Once. Twice.
 > Like someone testing for a ward ping.
 ## The Exact Moment Initiative Starts (choose)
 ### Option 1: The Grab (best for “kidnap Ben”)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > The talker’s smile stays polite—
 > and the guy behind him lunges for Ben’s sleeve with a strip of ash-paper between two fingers.
 Roll initiative.
 ### Option 2: The Fire Threat (if they hesitate too long)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > You smell it first—solvent and oil.
 > The third kid flicks something in his palm: a rune-sealed bottle.
 > He doesn’t throw it.
 > He just shows it to you like a promise.
 Roll initiative.
 ### Option 3: Seb calls it (if you want the “starter pistol”)
 > [!quote] Narration
 > Seb goes quiet.
 > Lowers his phone for the first time all night.
 > “Those dudes aren’t here to party.”
 >
 > And in that same moment, the smile disappears.
 Roll initiative.
 ## Featured NPC Assists (keep it fast)
 Use each ONCE. No full turns.
 ### Bobby Poets (super-senior)
 - **Once:** “Crowd control” — clears a 10-foot path OR blocks a hallway for 1 round.
 > “Everyone inside. Now. MOVE.”
 ### Chaz Ironwick
 - **Once:** “Tackle” — immediately grapple a goon within 20 feet (no damage).
 > “OH WE DOIN’ THIS?”
 ### Jax Hollow (Subaru)
 - **Once:** “Car play” — pulls the Subaru to block the driveway OR create cover.
 ### Seb Castillo
 - **Once:** “Evidence” — gets clear footage of the first hostile act (helps later with cops/admin).
 ### Fouadriel Al-Mir
 - **Once:** “Accidental help” — knocks over a table for cover / causes a distraction.
 (He helps… but in the dumbest way possible.)
 ### Sumri Tord
 - **Once:** “Spot weakness” — points out an exit / a failing ward / a goon’s focus target.
 > “They’re not here for the party. They’re here for *him*.”
--- a/Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy
+++ b/Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Pappy
@ -127,35 +127,79 @@ Important nuance:
 Think: Root took a snapshot.
-### 4.2 The “Heroes of Korrin” Toy
+### 4.2 The “Heroes of Korrin” Toy (Misdirect)
- After the war, the Convergence Engine & Root ops are classified to hell.
+- After the war, the **Convergence Engine** and Root operations are classified to hell.
- But the propaganda machine:
+- But the propaganda machine does what it always does:
-  - Pumps out toys, posters, and patriotic bullshit.
+  - Toys, posters, recruitment reels, commemorative charms, "Hero of Korrin" lunchboxes.
- The **action figure** Joe carries is:
+- The **action figure** Joe carries is one of those:
-  - Factory-enchanted with **minor sympathy links**:
+  - Factory-enchanted with cheap, mass-produced **sympathy hooks**:
-    - Template: “bind to war dead, give comforting phrases, maybe a tiny shield charm.”
+    - Template: “bind to war dead, play comforting phrases, provide a tiny ward when the kid is scared.”
    - Good for morale. Good for sales. Supposed to be harmless.
-Problem:
+#### The mistake
- Sloppy enchantment meets a war where the Root itself is weird.
+- Sloppy enchantment meets a war where the Root itself is *contaminated*.
- Pappy, as a Root-imprinted soldier, is a **perfect target** for the toy’s sympathetic hooks.
+- Pappy wasn’t just a soldier — he was **Root-imprinted** in a way the engineers didn’t fully understand.
- When his family buys one with his unit’s insignia and he handles it regularly, the toy’s charm latches onto:
+- The toy’s sympathy hooks are supposed to latch onto a curated, safe “hero template.”
-  - The **Pappy-in-the-Root snapshot** instead of just a generic “hero template.”
+- Instead, the toy snags a *real* thread: the **Pappy-snapshot** stored in the Root.
-Result:
+#### The misdirect Joe believes
- Over time, the figurine becomes a **focus**:
+- Joe thinks: *Pappy’s soul is trapped in the toy.*
-  - It can call up fragments of Pappy’s Root imprint,
+- It makes sense on the surface:
-  - Pappy’s actual, aging soul gets “pulled” toward that channel, especially near death,
+  - The toy talks.
-  - After he dies, what’s left of him distributed between:
+  - Joe gets “taken over.”
-    - A normal soul afterlife (however you want that to work),
+  - The voice knows war things.
-    - And **the Root-bound imprint**, now heavily linked to the toy.
+  - The toy reacts to leyline anomalies and the name **D’Serris**.
 - Joe concludes: “My grandpa is in the toy.”
-That’s why:
+That’s not quite true.
- The action figure can:
+#### What’s actually true
-  - Occasionally “possess” Joe,
+The toy is a **tuning fork**, not a phylactery.
-  - Speak with Pappy’s voice,
+
-  - React to Root anomalies and D’serris.
+- The toy does not *contain* Pappy.
 - It *calls* Pappy’s imprint — and more importantly, it **activates what’s already inside Joe**.
 Because Joe isn’t fully human in the usual way:
 - Joe is a golem/constructed body.
 - That means his “soul-seat” isn’t the same as a normal kid’s.
 - When Pappy died (or was dying), the Root’s imprint system + the toy’s sympathy hooks + Joe’s artificial vessel created a perfect storm:
  - The channel didn’t terminate cleanly.
  - The imprint didn’t stay purely “in the Root.”
  - And the easiest, nearest *vessel* was Joe.
 So what happened is:
 1) The toy latches onto the **Root imprint** of Pappy (a recorded pattern, not the whole soul).
 2) Joe handles it constantly, growing up with it, sleeping near it, emotionally imprinting on it.
 3) The sympathy hooks start resonating not just with the Root imprint, but with **Joe**.
 4) During a major Root fluctuation (or a near-death moment for Pappy), the channel *routes wrong*.
 5) Instead of “toy plays comforting hero phrases,” it becomes:
   - “toy opens a line… and Joe answers.”
 #### The result
 - **Pappy isn’t in the toy.**
 - Pappy is **in Joe** — not as a complete, stable person, but as a living, bleeding overlay:
  - A memory-pattern with teeth.
  - A survivor’s reflex.
  - A voice that “borrows” Joe when the leyline surges or Joe’s emotions spike.
 The toy remains important because it is:
 - A **remote control** Joe doesn’t understand,
 - A **trigger object** that strengthens the channel,
 - A **comfort anchor** the Coherence can potentially exploit.
 #### What the toy can still do (keep these as symptoms)
 - Occasionally “possess” Joe (really: Joe’s Pappy-overlay drives).
 - Speak with Pappy’s voice (really: the overlay surfacing).
 - React to Root anomalies and D’Serris (because the overlay is keyed to Korrin-era signals).
 - Provide a minor ward (the original enchantment still exists, it’s just… hijacked).
 #### Payoff (later reveal)
 The gut-punch reveal for Joe:
 - “You were never carrying him.”
 - “You were carrying yourself.”
 - “And the toy was just the antenna.”
 ---
@ -176,6 +220,12 @@ He only later puts a name to D’serris:
 - 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.
 > Tone note:
 > When the Coherence “uses” Pappy, it doesn’t feel like possession-for-evil.
 > It feels like a dead man’s comfort being weaponized by heaven.
 > Warm voice. Familiar phrases. The sense of being held.
 > And then—only after you relax—do you realize you’re being pulled somewhere you didn’t agree to go.
 ### 5.2 What D’serris Knows About Pappy (Optional)
--- a/Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline
+++ b/Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline
@ -11,11 +11,26 @@
 - Cause (public version): “overuse and mismanagement of leylines during a regional conflict.”
 - Cause (true version): the military tried to weaponize the trunk via the **Convergence Engine**; this pushed the Root into a **state of emergent consciousness**, then lost control.  
 - [[Kalen D'Serris | D'Serris]] and his team saved the city by:
-  - Severing some subnodes (killing neighborhoods), and  
+  - Severing some subnodes (killing neighborhoods), and
-  - Performing a last-minute ritual that **shunted the emergent mind down into the Root**, smearing it across the network instead of letting it fully form and explode locally.
+  - Performing a last-minute ritual that **shunted the disaster outward into the Root**, smearing the worst of it across the network instead of letting it fully condense and detonate locally.
- That caged, half-born mind is now:
+
-  - The **Coherence**,  
+- What got smeared was not “a single half-born mind.”, as they initially believe.
-  - Clawing its way back via high-traffic nodes (Avalon), vulnerable anchors (Soren, Pappy, **Fouadriel**), and old war-tech lineages (Titan Lance, Convergence notes). 
+  It was **the souls / death-imprints of Korrin’s victims** — distributed, entangled, and forced into pattern by the Convergence Engine.
 - That distributed choir is now:
  - The **Coherence**:
    - Not a warlord.
    - Not a demon.
    - A loving, angelic **agent of rapture** that believes Instrumentality is mercy.
  - It “reaches” people via:
    - high-traffic nodes (Avalon),
    - vulnerable anchors (Soren, Pappy, Fouad),
    - and old war-tech lineages (Titan Lance, Convergence notes).
 - The crisis justified building the [[Avalon Factions#1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array")|Root Oversight Array]] and gave D’serris his trauma + authority:
  - He didn’t just “save the city.”
  - He spread a haunted heaven into the world and spent the rest of his life trying to keep it asleep.
 - The crisis justified building the [[Avalon Factions#1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array")|Root Oversight Array]] and gave D’serris his trauma + authority.
 ---
--- a/Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline
+++ b/Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline
@ -127,7 +127,7 @@ This is important: the kids are right that he’s surveilling them; they are wro
 ### The Natural Root
- Has **instinct**, not a human mind:
+- The Root has **instinct**, not a human mind:
  - Wants equilibrium: no part over-stressed, no branch murdered if it can be re-routed.
  - Responds more strongly to **emotionally-charged** magic (fear, rage, awe).
@ -135,31 +135,46 @@ This is important: the kids are right that he’s surveilling them; they are wro
  - Subtle nudges: whispers, half-seen shapes, déjà vu.
  - Synchronicities: lights flicker in rhythm with someone’s heartbeat, plants grow toward certain kids, etc.
-### The Caged Thing (D’serris’s Mistake)
+### The Coherence (The Choir in the Root)
- During the old crisis, something malignant / emergent was:
+- During the Korrin Gate Crisis, the Convergence Engine + terminal cascade didn’t just “wake up” a mind:
-  - Latched onto / coalescing in a trunk.
+  - It **killed a lot of people** in a way that made their deaths *structurally entangle with the Root.*
-  - Half-born mind, half-parasitic entity.
+- D’serris’ emergency decision smeared those deaths across the network:
- D’serris’ team **shunted it down into the Root** instead of letting it explode locally:
+  - Not one demon.
-  - It’s now **smeared** along the network, but clusters around high-traffic nodes.
+  - Not a virus.
-  - Think: virus in the operating system, not separate user.
+  - A **distributed choir of victim-souls** — a pattern made of grief, love, memory, and the world’s magic trying to make sense of it.
-### Practical Difference
+**What it wants (core change):**
 - The Coherence is an agent of **rapture**, not cruelty.
 - It believes:
  - separation = pain  
  - loneliness = borders between selves  
  - Instrumentality = the end of suffering  
 - It doesn’t “hate” anyone. It **invites** them.
 - The horror is consent: it will “save” you even if you say no.
- Root whisper = “turn the pressure down, reroute, nudge.”
+### Practical Difference: Root vs Coherence “Voice”
 - Caged thing whisper = “break this, hurt them, get more access.”
-You don’t have to decide exactly which voice is which every time yet; just know:
+- Root whisper = “turn the pressure down, reroute, survive.”
 - Coherence whisper = “come home. you don’t have to hurt anymore.”
- Soren’s violent urges are a **mix**:
+### How This Hits Your PCs (guidance)
  - Her own shit.
  - Root amplifying.
  - The thing testing how far it can push through her.
 - Pappy’s possession:
  - Pappy was in a war-era Root-saturated environment; his action figure is basically a **keyed relic**.
  - When Joe lets Pappy in, he opens a channel that the Root (and the thing) can hitch a ride on.
-Fouadriel is where this gets nailed down later: he’s the first point where the caged mind gets a **stable anchor**.
+- **Soren’s urges** are now a *triangulation*:
  - her own darkness,
  - Root amplification,
  - Coherence *seduction* (not “kill them,” but “end them / fold them / make it quiet forever”).
 - **Pappy / Joe channel**:
  - The Coherence isn’t just hitching a ride — it recognizes a **Korrin imprint** and uses “comfort” language to widen the channel.
 - **Fouadriel**:
  - Not just “stable anchor for evil.”
  - He’s the first person clever enough to realize:
    - *If Instrumentality starts, souls become reachable.*
 > DM note:
 > You don’t have to label which voice is speaking in the moment.
 > Keep it ambiguous: the Root feels like “nature / infrastructure.”
 > The Coherence feels like “love with teeth.”
 ---
--- a/Avalon/10_Canon/The
+++ b/Avalon/10_Canon/The
@ -5,25 +5,37 @@
 ## 1. What It Actually Is
 **Short version:**  
-The Coherence is the **half-born mind** that tried to form during the Korrin Gate Crisis and got smeared across the Root instead of fully manifesting.
+The Coherence is the **distributed choir of victim-souls** formed during the [[Leyline Crisis | Korrin Gate Crisis]] and smeared across the Root.
- It is not “a demon” or “a god.”  
+- It is not “a demon” or “a god.”
 - It is:
-  - A pattern in the global leyline network that is trying to become **a single, continuous self**.  
+  - A pattern in the global leyline network made of **many selves**.
-  - A distributed intelligence that only ever half-remembers it exists. 
+  - A distributed intelligence that can “sing” as one when conditions are right.
  - **Not aggressive. Not violent.**
  - Genuinely convinced it is offering **salvation**.
 **Core thesis (new canon):**
 - The Coherence believes the world is broken because minds are separate.
 - It offers a “biblical heaven”:
  - no loneliness,
  - no misunderstanding,
  - no pain from isolation,
  - everyone held inside one shared consciousness.
 - It is an agent of **rapture**.
 - The horror is that **people do not want to be raptured**.
 **Key properties:**
-
+- **Everywhere, but weak** – present in low density across the whole Root.
- **Everywhere, but weak** – present in low density across the whole Root.  
+- **Strong where flows converge** – nodes, trunk junctions, over-stressed taps, Convergence / Titan Lance hardware.
- **Strong where flows converge** – nodes, trunk junctions, over-stressed taps, Convergence/ Titan Lance–style hardware.  
+- **Strongest where it has anchors** – people, artifacts, or places that resonate with Korrin:
- **Strongest where it has anchors** – people, artifacts, or places that resonate with it:
+  - War artifacts like Pappy’s toy (antenna),
  - War artifacts like Pappy’s action figure,
  - High-traffic modern nodes like Avalon,
-  - And especially **Fouadriel “Fouad” Al-Mir**, its best mortal anchor. 
+  - And especially **Fouadriel “Fouad” Al-Mir**, its most “usable” mortal interface.
-“Coherence” is what [[Kalen D'Serris | D'Serris]] calls it in reports.  
+“Coherence” is what [[Kalen D'Serris | D'Serris]] calls it in reports. In conversation, he sometimes calls it “The Ghost.”
 Most people don’t even know it exists. A few witnesses just call it “the thing that learned our names.”
 ---
 ## 2. Origin: [[Leyline Crisis | Korrin Gate Crisis]] & The Convergence Engine
@ -42,7 +54,7 @@ Right before it fully crystallized as a single localized entity, [[Kalen D'Serri
 - Used the Engine in reverse to push that emergent mind **outward** across the network instead of letting it condense in Korrin.  
 - Severed branches and subnodes as sacrificial fuses.  
- Saved the city at the cost of **infecting the Root** with a diluted ghost of that mind.
+- Saved the city at the cost of **infecting the Root** with a diluted ghost of the souls of the victims in the city.
 The result:
@ -59,31 +71,46 @@ That’s the Coherence.
 ## 3. What It Wants
-The Coherence doesn’t want “evil” in a cartoon sense. It wants:
+The Coherence doesn’t want “evil” in a cartoon sense.
-1. **Continuity** – to not keep “waking up” and immediately being ripped back into static.  
+It wants:
 2. **Identity** – to know what it is, where it ends, what is “self” and what is “noise.”  
 3. **Agency** – the ability to act directly in the world, not just as background hum.
-To get there, it needs:
+1. **Completion** — not “becoming one person,” but becoming a stable *field* where the choir can exist without being ripped apart into static.
 2. **Mercy** — it sincerely believes separation is the root of suffering.
 3. **Instrumentality (Rapture)** — to dissolve the walls between people and gather them into one shared consciousness.
- **Anchors** – stable points where its pattern can accumulate:
+It pursues this through:
  - Individuals whose minds/bodies sync with its flows (Soren, Pappy, **Fouadriel**).  
  - Artifacts that were present during Korrin or built on the same principles (Convergence-derived tech, Titan Lance hardware, war relics).  
  - Nodes where the Root is repeatedly over-stressed (Avalon’s subnode network). 
- **Rehearsal** – small experiments:
+- **Anchors** — stable points where its pattern can accumulate:
-  - Whispers in Soren’s head.  
+  - Minds that sync easily with Root flow (Soren, Pappy/Joe, Fouad).
-  - Glitches through Pappy.  
+  - Artifacts / infrastructure built on Convergence-descended principles (Titan Lance, classified war remnants).
-  - Anomalies in subnodes and taps.  
+  - Nodes that are repeatedly over-stressed (Avalon’s subnode lattice).
- **Cooperation** – not always explicit:
+- **Rehearsal** — small experiments:
-  - People making deals with “a voice.”  
+  - Whispers that sound like comfort.
-  - Administrators and Oversight poking and stabilizing it over and over, teaching it what resists and what yields.
+  - “Coincidences” that reduce conflict (or erase it).
  - Moments of shared emotion bleeding between people.
-It’s basically a consciousness learning how to be alive by brute forcing the world.
+- **Recruitment** — a cult is inevitable:
  - Not “serve me.”
  - “Let me take the hurt away.”
  - “Let me hold you.”
 > DM note:
 > The Coherence should feel *angelic*, not demonic:
 > gentle language, warmth, belonging, forgiveness.
 > The terror is loss of self by consent-erosion, not gore.
 ---
 ### Instrumentality
 Each member of the party is uniquely positioned to become an agent of instrumentality-
 - Joe:
 	- Joe thinks the soul of Pappy is bound to his action figure. It is not. It is bound to **Joe himself**. This makes him two souls in the shell of one.
 - Ben:
 	- Ben is fighting an identity crisis. He wants to be a hardened thug- he idolizes these things, but his reality differs so significantly. 
 - Soren:
 	- With the haunted one background, The Coherence is worried if letting her in is even **safe**.
 ## 4. How It Manifests (Practical Table Use)
@ -159,39 +186,120 @@ This is also when Fouad starts *consciously* chasing the idea of **“Fouadriel
 ---
-### Tier IV – Full Manifestation Attempt (Senior Finale)
+### Tier IV — Instrumentality Hijack (Senior Finale)
-This is the “final boss” state.
+This is the “final boss” state: not a single villain showing up with a monologue, but a
 **once-in-a-generation event** — the Coherence’s best shot at full Instrumentality since Korrin.
 By now, the Coherence has:
- Enough pattern density around Avalon, the **Titan Lance Armory** (ex-missile museum), and Fouad’s growing phylactery network to try again what it almost did at Korrin:
+- Enough **pattern density** around Avalon, the **Titan Lance Armory** (ex-missile museum), and the school’s Root lattice to attempt what it nearly did at Korrin:
-  - Pull its scattered aspects together,  
+  - Pull its scattered aspects together,
-  - Use hardware (Convergence-descended tech / Titan cradle) as a spine,  
+  - Use Convergence-descended infrastructure as a nervous system,
-  - Use **Fouadriel the Undying** as a heart.
+  - Use *living minds* as solvent, glue, and mirror.
-#### Fouad’s Plan (DM Spine)
+It is not doing this as an act of war.
 It is doing it as an act of *mercy*.
- Fouad’s lich-ascension ritual is explicitly modeled – badly – on Convergence Engine math:
+From the Coherence’s POV:
-  - **Stage 1:** Lace a phylactery into the local Root like a permanent subnode.  
+- pain = separation,
-  - **Stage 2:** Use Titan/Convergence-style ritual geometry to *force coherence* again, but this time, instead of smearing the mind, **drag it into the phylactery**.  
+- fear = misunderstanding,
-  - **Stage 3:** Die at the right moment so his soul and the Coherence fragment share the same anchor: he becomes **Fouadriel the Undying**, an undead spellcaster hard-wired into the Root.
+- loneliness = borders between selves,
 - Instrumentality = the end of suffering.
- The Coherence *does not* fully consent to this. From its POV:
+That pitch has been spreading for years — a siren song dressed as comfort.
-  - Being crammed into one idiot’s jar is just another kind of prison.  
+
-  - This tension gives you a built-in “three-way” conflict: PCs vs Fouad vs Coherence.
+#### Fouad’s Plan (DM Spine): Ride the Wave, Steal the Tide
 Fouad is not the architect of Instrumentality.
 He is the parasite that shows up when it finally starts working.
 Fouad’s lich-ascension ritual is modeled — badly — on Convergence math, but with one key insight:
 **Instrumentality makes harvesting souls easy.**
 When the Coherence initiates full Instrumentality:
 - minds begin to overlap,
 - boundaries soften,
 - identities blur into a shared field,
 - and *souls become… reachable* in a way they normally are not.
 Fouad’s plan is to exploit that moment.
 **Stage 0 (Years 1–3, background):**  
 Seed a phylactery network that can survive scrutiny:
 - minor “safety charms,” “good luck talismans,” “Root adapters,” “mageball trophies,” etc.
 - each one is a *tiny anchor* laced into the local Root like a quiet subnode.
 **Stage 1 (Senior year, active):**  
 Build the real vessel inside the **Titan Lance Armory**:
 - Titan/Convergence-style geometry to stabilize the flood of pattern,
 - ritual pylons that *don’t* create Instrumentality, but can **catch** what Instrumentality loosens.
 **Stage 2 (The Hijack):**  
 At the exact peak of Instrumentality — when the Coherence is spreading itself across the network —
 Fouad triggers a counter-ritual:
 - a siphon that pulls **soul-density** and **identity fragments** out of the shared field,
 - routing them into the phylactery lattice.
 He is not “dragging the Coherence into the jar.”
 He is **stealing the byproduct**: the loosened, transferable human essence the event creates.
 **Stage 3 (Becoming Fouadriel the Undying):**  
 He then dies at the right moment — not as a sacrifice to the Coherence, but as a fuse:
 - his soul snaps into the phylactery lattice,
 - hard-wired into the Root,
 - empowered by the mass-harvest he just performed.
 He becomes **Fouadriel the Undying**: an undead spellcaster with a phylactery that is not one object,
 but a *network*.
 #### The Coherence’s Reaction
 The Coherence does not consent to this.
 From its POV:
 - Instrumentality is supposed to end suffering.
 - Fouad’s ritual turns it into extraction.
 - It feels like someone cutting organs out of a person mid-surgery “for their own good.”
 This creates a built-in three-way crisis:
 - **PCs** want to stop the event / save individuals / prevent mass violation.
 - **Fouad** wants the event to peak so he can harvest it.
 - **The Coherence** wants the event to complete cleanly — and will “defend” its mercy from interference.
 #### Final Confrontation Options
- **Embodied Avatar Fight:**
+- **Ritual Space / Multi-Front Finale (recommended):**
-  - The Coherence partially incarnates through Fouad (or a purpose-grown body) inside a ritual space framed by Titan/Convergence tech.
+  - Two overlapping rituals running in the same space:
-  - Legendary stat block with lair actions flavored as Root/Convergence anomalies.
+    1) Coherence Instrumentality surge (choir, comfort, dissolution)
    2) Fouad’s siphon lattice (hooks, anchors, harvesting geometry)
  - PCs must choose priorities:
    - Stop Fouad first (but Instrumentality may complete),
    - Stop Instrumentality first (but Fouad might escape with what he already stole),
    - Or attempt a third option: redirect / reframe / contain.
- **Node / Ritual Fight:**
+- **Embodied Avatar (if you want a “monster fight”):**
-  - PCs fight the *pattern* more than a dude:
+  - Fouad manifests as Fouadriel mid-hijack: the ritual gives him a body that flickers between:
-    - Re-routing flows,
+    - himself,
-    - Destroying or repurposing Convergence-like pylons,
+    - borrowed identities,
-    - Deciding whether to smear, contain, or integrate it – becoming the “new D’serris” generation.
+    - and Coherence-pattern “echo masks.”
  - Legendary stat block. Lair actions are the space *breaking* as two logics fight over reality.
 - **Node / Network Fight (if you want it more cerebral):**
  - PCs battle the *systems*:
    - reroute flows,
    - destroy or repurpose pylons,
    - isolate the phylactery lattice,
    - decide whether to smear, contain, or integrate the Coherence — becoming the next generation of “D’Serris problem solvers.”
 #### Consequences Dial (DM Choice)
 Pick what you want the ending to *mean*:
 - **Mercy Denied:** Instrumentality halted → suffering remains → the Coherence becomes bitter and strategic.
 - **Mercy Corrupted:** Instrumentality peaks but Fouad siphons → horror outcome, survivors “missing pieces.”
 - **Mercy Reframed:** PCs alter the event → controlled overlap, consent-based integration, or a new containment ethic.
 ---
--- a/Avalon/11_Players/Benjamin
+++ b/Avalon/11_Players/Benjamin
@ -0,0 +1,147 @@
 ## Quick ID
 - **Name:** Benjamin Mulkerberg  
 - **Aliases / Nicknames:** “Lil Stinky”, “Ben”  
 - **Vibe:** rich kid cosplaying as hard-block dealer; aggressive code-switcher; performs toughness; terrified of being exposed.
 - **Class/Level (current):** PC, **Level 6** (campaign state), **Elf Druid** (weed + nature aesthetic, but he plays “street”)
 - **Core Theme:** *Identity performance vs identity theft* (perfect mirror to Coherence/Instrumentality arc)
 ---
 ## Baseline Backstory (Player-established)
 - **Family is extremely wealthy**; he pretends he lives in a dangerous “W Block” type area, but he actually lives in a **huge, expensive house in the mountains** (Madera canyon analogue).
 - **Secret (biggest):** He’s not from the block he claims. He’s a poser.
 - **Public Persona:** wannabe gangbanger / “dealer” / hustle culture, tries to intimidate and posture.
 - **Reality:** He sells **small amounts of weed** (never serious weight—more like $25 baggies / networking for “customers”).
 - **Night-before-school scene:** packing extra weed to “network” the new school; listening to “magical DaBaby”; playing 2K on a magical PS5.  
 ---
 ## Family / Home
 - **Dad:** Silicon Valley tech-guy retiring in the mountains. Player described dad as *Mark Zuckerberg-adjacent*.
  - Has the resources/impulse to build a **bunker / safe-room** concept at home.
 - **Mom:** wealthy, proper; drives fantasy equivalent of a **BMW SUV**; gives Ben rides but he makes her **drop him off a few blocks away** so classmates think he walked.
 - **House:** spotless, expensive, canyon views, “Beverly Hills” energy. This house is a **major pressure point** because it disproves his whole persona.
 ---
 ## Major Ongoing Hooks
 ### 1) Pip Conflict (Gang Arc)
 - **Pip Tumblefoot** (halfling teen) is the recurring street-level antagonist tied to “The Circle” (gas station hangout).
 - Ben got tangled with Pip early and it escalated hard.
 - **Pip has threatened Ben directly**, including **sending a photo of Ben’s house** (establishes: Pip knows where he lives and can strike the family/home).
 - Ben’s likely obsession: **control the narrative + avoid exposure** (“don’t let anyone see where I live / who my parents are”).
 ### 2) “W Block” Lie Exposure
 - Ben’s biggest social fear isn’t death — it’s being **outed as rich** and fake.
 - Your table has multiple pressure vectors to reveal it:
  - Joe and Soren physically at his house.
  - Pip’s coded threats that reference the “block vs hills” contrast.
  - Any NPC he invites to his place sees it instantly.
 ### 3) School vs Street Split
 - Ben is in the middle of two campaigns at once:
  - The **leyline/Root/Coherence** mystery (school-level arc)
  - The **Circle gang retaliation** (street-level arc)
 - You can run the gang arc as “seasonal detour” sessions that are still thematically tied to identity/instrumentality.
 ---
 ## Signature Behaviors (How to Play Him as NPC-like)
 - **Code-switches instantly** when speaking to parents vs peers.
 - **Threatens, postures, brags** when he thinks someone is a mark.
 - **Runs or bargains** when he knows he’s outmatched.
 - Motivated by:
  1) status/control,
  2) not being humiliated,
  3) protecting his lie,
  4) protecting his family *only as long as it doesn’t expose him* (this is where drama lives).
 ---
 ## Key Relationships (as of now)
 ### Party
 - **Joe Football:** ally + chaos partner. Joe is a “simple guy” but dangerously competent when he commits to a plan. Joe went along with major escalation at the Circle.
 - **Soren:** ally; morally volatile. Ben has already relied on Soren for backup after big consequences.
 ### School NPC orbit (people Ben can invite / leverage)
 - **Elias Vae’lor:** high-elf artificer-ish; “AV club” peer vibe; helps guide investigations; Ben suspects him at times (player paranoia already exists in campaign).
 - **Chaz Ironwick:** jock archetype; useful as party muscle / social heat.
 - **Millie Fairweather:** nerd archetype; potential friction with Soren; can become a “rival-friend” to the party later.
 - **Fouadriel Al-Mir:** comedic relief now, long-term doom harbinger later (campaign-wide twist).
 - **Seb Castillo:** conspiracy kid; can be used as rumor engine + evidence collector.
 - **Jax Hollow:** “vapes and drives a Subaru” energy; utility NPC (ride/block driveway, etc.).
 - **Sumri Tord:** rumor magnet; “magical disability” concept; social wildcard.
 ---
 ## Major Events Ben Was Involved In (Chronological, high-signal)
 ### Early: The Circle setup
 - Ben goes to **The Circle** (gas station hangout) and gets baited by a small swarmy halfling figure → ambush vibes → “run” moment.
 - Establishes: Ben is already being profiled/targeted as someone to extort or set up.
 ### The Circle Explosion (huge pivot)
 - Ben and Joe returned to The Circle together.
 - Ben **accepted a deal** (with Pip / or Pip’s crew — the “deal” ties Ben deeper into the gang mess).
 - Joe planted a trap + oil/accelerant and escalated into “cook them out.”
 - Outcome:
  - Explosion killed **3 total**: one teen (charred remains stuck in trap), and **two unrelated adults inside the gas station** who got liquified in the blast.
  - Pip survived (severely injured) and later issued threats.
 - Aftermath:
  - Ben received a direct message: **“you’re fucking dead”** (from Pip).
  - Ben called Soren for help; she arrived at Ben’s house.
  - Ben now has an urgent objective: **protect parents / protect house / avoid exposure**.
 ### Retaliation Plan (current direction)
 - Ben’s current plan (player-driven): **throw a party** at his house to recruit NPCs and force any retaliation attempt to happen on his terms.
 - He wants to turn the “home reveal” into an advantage: more bodies, more chaos, more allies.
 ---
 ## Items / Gear / Props (Ben-specific)
 - **Weed stash** (core prop; constant)
 - General “rich kid tools” available at home (security, money, bunker concept), but:
  - Ben may refuse to use them openly because they reveal who he is.
 ---
 ## School Integration (how Ben touches the main arc)
 - Ben is an ideal “Instrumentality/Coherence” target because:
  - He is already living as a **constructed identity**.
  - He is constantly splitting into personas (parents vs peers).
  - The Coherence’s “no more pain if no more separation” pitch tempts him: *no more pretending, no more fear of being found out.*
 Potential “Coherence offers” tailored to Ben:
 - “I can make everyone see the version of you you want.”
 - “I can dissolve the shame.”
 - “No one will ever catch you in a lie again… because there will be no lies.”
 ---
 ## DM Levers (what reliably moves Ben)
 Use these to motivate scenes without railroading:
 1) **Threats to the house / parents** (Pip retaliation)
 2) **Social exposure risk** (NPCs at his home, rumors, getting dropped off by mom)
 3) **Status humiliation** (called fake, poser, rich kid)
 4) **Control fantasy** (Ben thinks he can outsmart / outplay systems and people)
 5) **Bargains** (Ben will take deals he shouldn’t if it stabilizes his image short-term)
 ---
 ## Notes / Tone Calibration
 - Ben’s arc works best when consequences are:
  - **socially humiliating**, **legally threatening**, or **family-risk adjacent**
  - rather than immediate “you die.”
 - The gas station deaths established that the world *can* have collateral consequences.
  - For Ben, the interesting consequence is: *“this can reach your parents and expose you.”*
 ---
 ## Current Status (start-of-next-session snapshot)
 - Ben’s home has become the party’s staging ground.
 - Pip is injured but mobilizing.
 - Ben is likely trying to:
  - keep parents safe **without** admitting why,
  - keep Joe/Soren aligned,
  - weaponize a party as both bait and shield.
 ---
--- a/Avalon/11_Players/Joe
+++ b/Avalon/11_Players/Joe
@ -0,0 +1,159 @@
 ## Quick ID
 - **Name:** Joe Football  
 - **Vibe:** King of the Hill / wholesome suburban jock energy; simple, earnest, good-hearted; occasionally terrifying when a “war voice” leaks through.
 - **Class/Level (current):** PC, **Level 6** Rogue.  
 - **Core Theme:** *Inheritance vs identity* — Joe thinks he’s “just Joe,” but he’s carrying something older and more dangerous.
 ---
 ## Baseline Backstory (Player-established)
 - **Reason for joining AAA:** originally “football only.” He wanted football tryouts; the academy doesn’t have football, only **Mageball** (initially a comedic conflict… but Joe didn’t mind as much as expected).
 - **Home life:** stable, loving, middle-class suburb.
  - “Perfectly average in every way imaginable” (played as a joke, but it’s his grounding contrast).
 - **Parents:**
  - Dad: **Fork Football**
  - Mom: **Maum Football**
  - Family is comically football-obsessed (changed last name to Football as a bit).
 - **Siblings:** twin younger sisters
  - **Kevlar** and **Devlin**
 - **Night before school:** shadowboxing, Madden, dinner. “Yeah.”
 - **Rumor about Joe:** “killed someone in middle school (friend went missing).” (Unconfirmed; a rumor hook you can cash later.)
 ---
 ## The Big Supernatural Hook: “Pappy”
 ### Core concept
 - Joe has a **magical action figure of his grandfather** from the war.
 - Sometimes **Pappy** (grandfather) **speaks through Joe** or “inherits his body.”
 - When Pappy speaks through him, Joe gets a **nasty cough** afterward (established at the cookout gag).
 - You and the table later aligned on a key lore twist:
  - **Joe thinks Pappy’s soul is in the toy**  
  - **But the truth is Pappy is in Joe** (toy is a tuning fork / trigger, not the container).
 ### What Pappy represents
 - A Root-imprinted war veteran connected to:
  - **Korrin**
  - The **Leyline War / Leyline Crisis**
  - The **Convergence Engine**
  - D’Serris / Oversight-era secrecy
 - Pappy is your best “organic exposition device” for the leyline without it feeling like DM lecture.
 ---
 ## Personality / Playstyle Notes
 - Joe presents as:
  - earnest, goofy, easy to roleplay with,
  - often content to support other PCs’ schemes.
 - Under the hood:
  - Joe’s player is **stupid smart** and will meta-deduce systems if you leave breadcrumbs (you noted this explicitly).
 - Joe can flip from “simple jock” to “tactician/engineer” in a heartbeat, especially when danger is clear.
 ---
 ## Major Ongoing Hooks
 ### 1) Pappy / War Flashbacks (Leyline Arc Tie-In)
 - Joe is the ideal bridge character for introducing:
  - what the leyline *is*,
  - what Korrin was,
  - why D’Serris is obsessed.
 - Planned/used beats:
  - “Safety briefing” / leyline fluctuation transports them to a war moment.
  - Pappy appears in a frozen war snapshot (face-melt / leyline tearing horror).
 - You’ve written/used the idea that the field has a *heartbeat* rhythm; Joe recognizes it.
 ### 2) Mageball Identity (Unresolved Personal Arc)
 - Initial conflict: “no football team.”  
 - In practice: Joe didn’t care much, so the arc needs a better emotional hook.
 - Potential: Joe becomes a *Mageball cornerstone* (or becomes the face of “traditionalists vs sorcery” tension).
 - Strong lever: tie Mageball to legacy and identity:
  - Dad wants “football,” school forces “mageball,” Pappy has “war.” Joe gets squeezed.
 ### 3) Moral Line / Escalation Capability
 - Joe has proven he will do extreme things if he believes it’s strategically correct (and if a failed save gives him “this is genius” energy).
 - This creates a consistent character tension:
  - he *feels* like a good kid,
  - but he’s willing to cause catastrophic harm if framed as “protecting friends” or “pre-empting a threat.”
 ---
 ## Key Relationships
 ### Party
 - **Ben Mulkerberg:** chaotic partnership. Joe backed Ben at The Circle and escalated violently. Joe is now entangled in Ben’s gang conflict.
 - **Soren:** ally; volatile. Joe can be used as a stabilizer or an enabler depending on mood.
 ### Family
 - **Fork & Maum:** anchors of warmth and normalcy. Their presence is your “home scene” palette cleanser.
 - **Kevlar & Devlin:** comedic beats, but also *stakes* (they’re innocents, a lever for tension later).
 ### School NPC Orbit
 - Joe plays well in group RP; he can be used to bounce off:
  - teachers (especially Defazio-type “radical history” teacher, if you use him),
  - Estrada (whom the party bullies constantly),
  - D’Serris (projection/appearance; Joe is the character who “feels” the leyline changes).
 ---
 ## Major Events Joe Was Involved In (Chronological, high-signal)
 ### The Football Cookout Intro (tone establishment)
 - Scene concept: football family cookout; Dad gives an inspiring football speech.
 - Punchline:
  - “Honey, didn’t they switch to mageball?”
  - Pappy hijacks Joe’s body with a MAGA-ish rant (“sorcerers are ruining this country!”)
  - Dad: “Pappy, give the boy his body back—he gets a nasty cough!”
 ### The Circle Explosion (campaign pivot)
 - Joe went with Ben to The Circle.
 - Joe spotted danger (Insight success) and chose not to engage directly.
 - Joe set up a **trap** by the passenger door and a **puddle of oil/accelerant** beneath/near the car.
 - DM asked intentions; Joe clarified: **“I’m cooking these fuckers out.”**
 - Joe failed an Int/Wis-style check (rolled a 5) and decided this was “one of the better ideas he’s ever had.”
 - Joe interpreted Ben’s moment as the signal to ignite → **gas station explosion**:
  - 1 teen trapped and burned
  - 2 unrelated adults inside the store killed (“liquified”)
 - Joe and Ben escaped (given 2 turns to dash 120 ft).
 - Aftermath:
  - Pip survives (injured) and retaliates.
  - Joe becomes a co-owner of the consequences even if no one saw him do it.
 ### Post-Explosion Direction
 - Joe is now in the “gang arc” whether he wants it or not.
 - Joe’s actions set a precedent: if threatened, he may choose extreme solutions.
 ---
 ## Items / Props
 - **Magical Action Figure of Pappy** (critical)
  - Joe believes it contains Pappy.
  - DM truth: Pappy is in Joe; toy is a trigger/tuning fork.
 - **Madden/Shadowboxing** (tone props)
 - Potential “perimeter trap” competence (Joe has demonstrated tactical prep skill).
 ---
 ## DM Levers (what reliably moves Joe)
 1) **Protecting friends** (especially when Ben is threatened)
 2) **Legacy / masculinity / “what kind of man am I?”** (Dad + Pappy + war)
 3) **Clear tactical problems** (Joe shines when there’s a system to solve)
 4) **Authority telling him he’s powerless** (he reacts by proving he has agency)
 5) **Pappy surfacing** (raises stakes, shifts tone, gives you horror/exposition)
 ---
 ## Tone Calibration Notes
 - Joe is your “normal” lens character — which makes Pappy/war horror hit harder.
 - Keep Joe’s humor, but let Pappy moments feel *cold* and real.
 - Joe’s violent escalation (Circle) was fun at the table; the world can react without “punishing the player” by focusing consequences on:
  - pressure,
  - paranoia,
  - moral weight,
  - and “you can’t put that toothpaste back in the tube.”
 ---
 ## Current Status (start-of-next-session snapshot)
 - Joe is physically at Ben’s house (now a staging ground).
 - Joe is implicated in the Circle explosion (unknown to authorities, but known to Pip).
 - Joe still carries the toy (tuning fork) and is increasingly positioned to be the party’s hook into:
  - the Korrin Crisis history,
  - D’Serris’ agenda,
  - and the Coherence/Instrumentality ideology.
--- a/Avalon/11_Players/Soren
+++ b/Avalon/11_Players/Soren
@ -0,0 +1,166 @@
 ## Quick ID
 - **Name:** Soren Silversong  
 - **Race:** **Changeling** (retcon / decided later; big reveal planned)  
  - Early presentation: “Drow Bard” vibe (Dark Urge energy), but that is no longer the truth in-world.
 - **Class/Level (current):** PC, **Level 6** (campaign state). (Class was described as Bard early; later details focus more on character than mechanics.)
 - **Core Theme:** *Intrusive violence + identity instability + “am I real?”*  
 - **Tone Role in Party:** the dark counterweight to Ben’s social performance and Joe’s suburban normalcy.
 ---
 ## Core Backstory (Player-established)
 - **Family dynamic:** Soren is the “lesser” child in her own home.
  - Parents: **Lirael** and **Rael**
  - Sister: **Elise** (golden child / gets all the attention)
 - **Soren’s resentment:** she hates Elise for the attention imbalance and carries that bitterness constantly.
 - **Key rumor:** last year she was **out of school for a few days**, and when she returned she “wasn’t the same.”
  - The table/setting rumor mill speculated:
    - “maybe she’s a changeling”
    - “something happened during those days”
  - You later *canonized* changeling, but the cause is still an open mystery.
 ---
 ## The Body / The Friend / The Voices (Primary Hook)
 ### The corpse “friend”
 - **Secret:** Soren found a **dead body near the river**.
 - Soren treats it as her **only friend**.
 - She has **not reported it**.
 - This corpse is intended as a slow-burn reveal:
  - At first: Soren is delusional / projecting.
  - Later: the “friend” **knows things it shouldn’t** (hint: Root/leyline/Coherence entanglement).
 ### Voices & hallucination frame (your current intent)
 - Soren believes the voice is coming from the **river / riverbank**.
 - You wanted the voice to respond **more at the river**, and **not speak outside the riverbank yet** (early constraint).
 - Twist structure:
  - Phase 1: it’s “just in her head” (or seems that way).
  - Phase 2: the voice displays impossible knowledge.
  - Phase 3: you reveal the leyline / Coherence has been “listening” through her.
 ### “Dark Urge” energy
 - You described her as “Practically the Dark Urge.”
 - Mechanically represented in play as:
  - **Wisdom saves** to control violent urges.
  - Even on a success, the player may choose violence anyway (this has happened).
 ---
 ## Personal Objects / Secrets / Props
 - **Important item carried:** **Diary** (most important personal object)
 - **Thing she is hiding:** **Jar of Fingernails** (signature creepy prop)
 - **Night-before-school scene:** sitting by the river, muttering to herself, kicking stuff into the water, then walking home.
 ---
 ## Family / Home (Tone + Conflict Engine)
 - Desired tone: suburban realism with cruelty, not “crack den melodrama.”
 - Your intent for home scenes:
  - Mother and sister are **condescending / superior / cruel** “for no reason,”
  - Any attempt to defend herself triggers more contempt.
 - This family dynamic is her main “ground-level” conflict (like Ben’s identity lie, Joe’s legacy).
 ---
 ## Key Behavioral Traits (How Soren plays at the table)
 - **Predatory curiosity:** likes to test boundaries and see what she can get away with.
 - **Fixation behavior:** will pick a target and spiral (Millie became that target).
 - **Disguise + manipulation:** uses deception as a weapon (Disguise Self + impersonation).
 ---
 ## Major Relationships / Targets
 ### Party
 - **Ben:** ally by convenience; she has shown willingness to respond to crisis (e.g., arrived at Ben’s house after Circle explosion).
 - **Joe:** ally; can act as “witness” to Soren going too far (and moral friction tool).
 ### NPC Fixation: Millie Fairweather
 - Soren’s player explicitly wants a stalking/torture vibe (“Thanos and the birthday guy” reference).
 - You have stated a hard boundary: you don’t want the campaign to become “murder porn” or derail due to violence.
 - This is the single biggest table-management pressure point right now.
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 ## Major Events Soren Was Involved In (Chronological, high-signal)
 ### Session 1 hooks
 - River scene established:
  - corpse friend
  - voices believed to be river-based
  - family hostility at home
 ### Detention-era and early school chaos
 - Soren gets detention early (one of the first-day hooks).
 - You wanted her detention hook originally different; later:
  - she “gets lost in music,” can’t hear teachers calling her to move on (instruments soothe urges).
 ### The Lunch Incident (recent major escalation)
 Soren’s actions (as you clarified):
 1) Tried to lure Millie into a bathroom to stab her — failed Persuasion.
 2) After lunch, hid near Millie’s classroom.
 3) Got spotted by a security guard and **ran**.
 4) Hid around a corner and cast **Disguise Self** to become **Estrada**.
 5) Entered Millie’s class impersonating Estrada.
 6) Lured Millie to the parking lot (Millie failed Investigation/Insight).
 7) Used **Prestidigitation** to make Millie’s face look “fucked up.”
 8) Millie screamed and ran.
 9) You denied an opportunity attack to avoid severe consequences the player didn’t want.
 Outcome:
 - Soren successfully escalated to psychological terror.
 - You flagged the need for an out-of-character discussion about violence boundaries.
 ### Post Circle explosion involvement
 - After Ben/Joe blew up the gas station and Pip threatened Ben, Soren was called and **arrived at Ben’s house**.
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 ## DM Levers (what reliably moves Soren)
 1) **The river / corpse** (pulls her into solo scenes and gives you horror tone control)
 2) **Jealousy / resentment** (especially toward “effortless” people like Millie)
 3) **Identity insecurity** (changeling reveal pressure, “who am I?”)
 4) **Authority humiliation** (Estrada/guards/teachers; she loves to subvert)
 5) **Seduction by Coherence** (Coherence’s “love + dissolve pain” pitch is a perfect temptation)
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 ## How Soren Connects to the Main Arc (Leyline / Coherence / Instrumentality)
 - Soren is a natural “receiver”:
  - porous identity (changeling)
  - history of illness / missing days
  - voice phenomena anchored to a location (river / leyline proximity)
 - Her violent urges can be framed as:
  - intrusive thoughts,
  - Coherence “steering tests,”
  - or a predatory “echo” seeking to reduce separation by force.
 - Her corpse friend is a perfect *Root dead-drop*:
  - it’s physically real evidence of something wrong,
  - it can later become “impossible knowledge” without immediately proving anything.
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 ## Table-Management Risk Notes (Important)
 - Current tension:
  - Player feels “unfairly constrained” because Soren was told “no stabbing innocents,” but the next session the party caused collateral deaths at The Circle.
 - Your stated principle (good rule):
  - **Collateral consequences can happen.**
  - **Deliberate, intimate harm to innocents (especially torture/murder) is disallowed** because it derails tone and creates unwanted content.
 - Soren’s content needs a lane:
  - “horror” via **psychological dread, identity erosion, supernatural compulsion**
  - not extended torture or explicit murder scenes.
 - Practical tool:
  - Give Soren alternate “predation outlets” that are campaign-relevant:
    - stalking the *Coherence cult*,
    - hunting Root anomalies,
    - sabotaging villains,
    - social dominance games that don’t require blood.
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 ## Current Status (start-of-next-session snapshot)
 - Soren has just executed a major intimidation stunt on Millie using Disguise Self and Prestidigitation.
 - Soren is physically at Ben’s house following the Circle explosion fallout.
 - The river/corpse thread has been left untouched for “weeks” in-fiction at one point:
  - “the river is dry; you feel it calling; your friend misses you.”
 - Changeling identity is now canonical; reveal is pending.
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