vault backup: 2025-12-06 12:08:53

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@@ -13,15 +13,30 @@
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@@ -173,6 +188,16 @@
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Avalon/04_NPCs_Faculty/Kalen D'Serris.md

@@ -3,7 +3,7 @@
 ## Overview
 
 - Former leyline field engineer / battle-mage who watched a city almost die in a node collapse.
-- Co-designed the Root Oversight Array – remote monitoring + partial control of the leyline “grid.”
+- Co-designed the [[Factions#1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array")|Root Oversight Array]] – remote monitoring + partial control of the leyline “grid.”
 - Genuine believer that surveillance + control are the only things keeping the world from burning again.
 - Treats Avalon Academy as a **critical but expendable** node: a testbed and early-warning system.
 - PCs are “anomalous survivors” of the B2 event. He uses them as on-site sensors and guinea pigs.
@@ -30,7 +30,7 @@
 
 ---
 
-## The Leyline Crisis (The Thing That Broke Him)
+## [[Leyline Crisis]]
 
 Set ~10–15 years before the campaign.
 

Avalon/06_Factions_Secrets/Factions.md

@@ -0,0 +1,404 @@
+# Factions – Avalon & The Valley
+
+> DM reference. This is about **who wants what** and **how they’ll use the PCs**.
+
+---
+
+## 1. Institutional Factions
+
+### 1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array")
+
+**Public Face:**  
+Regional Leyline Oversight, officially charged with “monitoring and safeguarding the Root.”
+
+**Real Core (for this region):**  
+- Overseer **Kalen D’serris** and a handful of remote analysts/technicians.
+- A distant central board that mostly cares about metrics, not people.
+
+**What They Want (Macro):**
+- Prevent another **Korrin Gate Crisis** at all costs.
+- Keep the Root flowing, the grid stable, and the political powers funding them.
+- Detect any sign that the **Coherence** (the caged mind) is trying to regroup.
+
+**What They Want (Local – re: Avalon):**
+- Use the Academy node as a **sensor** and **testbed**:
+  - High caster density = early warning system.
+  - Controlled environment = good for experiments and emergency drills.
+- Understand why:
+  - B2 destabilized the way it did.
+  - The PCs survived direct exposure.
+  - Fouadriel trips so many quiet alarms.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Constant telemetry logging (“we watch the graphs”).
+- Remote throttling / lockdowns of taps and subnodes.
+- Issuing directives to local authorities (Larkvale, Estrada) “for safety.”
+- Quietly recruiting on-the-ground proxies (Elias, later possibly the PCs).
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- **Subjects**, not heroes:
+  - “Anomalous survivors” of B2.
+  - Emotionally volatile, magically interesting, and already “contaminated.”
+- Potential tools:
+  - Can go places Oversight can’t.
+  - Can poke at anomalies and report back.
+
+**How They Might Use the PCs:**
+- Assign “investigation” tasks framed as student opportunities:
+  - “Report any further anomalies in Subnode cluster B.”
+  - “Assist maintenance with recalibrating ritual arrays.”
+- Try to control their social circle:
+  - Subtly push them away from Fouadriel or toward watching him.
+- In later years, they may offer:
+  - Access to classified data.
+  - Legal cover, gear, or even “deputized” status in exchange for cooperation.
+
+**Internal Tension:**
+- D’serris is actually traumatized and sincere.  
+  His unseen superiors are mostly worried about **optics and uptime**:
+  - “Keep the Root stable, but don’t cause scandals.”
+  - If Avalon becomes too noisy, they might recommend shutting the node down entirely.
+
+---
+
+### 1.2 Avalon Adventuring Academy Administration
+
+**Public Face:**
+- A respected prep academy for future adventurers, civic mages, and magical professionals.
+- “Shaping the heroes and leaders of tomorrow.”
+
+**Key Figures (you can swap in your canon names):**
+- **Headmaster / Headmistress** – distant figure, political face of the school.  
+- **Assistant Headmaster Larkvale** – day-to-day disciplinarian and Oversight’s primary contact.  
+- **Dean Estrada** – student-facing, handles clubs, sports, and PR.  
+- **Department Heads** (History, Arcane Theory, Environmental Studies, Drama, etc.)
+
+**What They Want (Macro):**
+- Keep funding, prestige, and safety stats high.
+- Graduate students who go on to be **useful and successful**, so the school looks good.
+- Keep Oversight happy enough that they don’t cut the node, but not so powerful that they can dictate everything.
+
+**What They Want (Right Now):**
+- Make the B2 incident *go away* as a PR problem.
+- Avoid any narrative that the academy is “unsafe.”
+- Keep students under control without triggering a full-blown crackdown.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Detentions, suspensions, and disciplinary hearings.
+- Quietly rewriting incident reports.
+- Throwing problematic staff or kids under the bus if needed.
+- Using Estrada and favored teachers as pressure valves:
+  - “Let the kids blow off steam in Mageball instead of burning down the lab.”
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- High-risk, high-profile troublemakers with potential:
+  - The kind of kids who end up in hero stories… or on the news.
+- PR assets or liabilities depending on the week.
+
+**How They Might Use the PCs:**
+- Assign them “extra responsibilities”:
+  - Peer mentors, club officers, field trip helpers.
+  - Really just excuses to keep them where admin can see them.
+- Nudge them toward or away from certain staff:
+  - “Spend more time with Prof. Elias, he stabilizes you.”
+  - “Stay out of Defazio’s conspiracy-chasing seminars.”
+
+**Internal Lines:**
+- **Larkvale** leans pro-Oversight, pro-control.  
+- **Estrada** leans pro-students, pro-chaos (but still wants wins).  
+- Some teachers quietly resent both.
+
+---
+
+### 1.3 Custodial & Maintenance Crew ("Groundkeepers")
+
+**Public Face:**
+- The people who keep the school clean and the lights on.
+
+**Reality:**
+- They are wired into the **physical subnodes and taps** more than anyone else on campus.
+- They see every glitch, burn mark, and leyline burp before admin ever reads a report.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- Not to die in a stupid magical accident.
+- Not to have their work scapegoated when something breaks.
+- Hazard pay that actually matches hazard.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Quietly rerouting minor surges before anyone notices.
+- Locking doors or “taking areas offline for cleaning” when something feels wrong.
+- Passing rumors among themselves about weird Root behavior.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Walking OSHA violations.
+- “The kids who were in that room when B2 went weird.”
+
+**How They Might Use the PCs:**
+- Slip them hints:
+  - “Hey, don’t go near B wing tonight, those lights aren’t just flickering.”
+- Ask for help with things above their paygrade:
+  - “You three seem crazy enough to crawl into that conduit after hours.”
+
+**Potential Schism:**
+- Some groundkeepers are loyal to admin.  
+- Others think Oversight is the only reason they’re still alive.  
+- One or two might be secret allies or informants for D’serris *or* the PCs.
+
+---
+
+### 1.4 The Circle Network (Local Crime)
+
+**Public Face:**
+- “Just some older kids and townies who hang at the gas station.”
+
+**Reality:**
+- A small but organized **low-tier drug and contraband distribution ring** centered on The Circle.
+- Pip is a mid-level runner, not the boss.
+- They’ve started quietly using **Root-powered tricks**:
+  - Taps in the Circle lot.
+  - Enchanted packaging / concealment.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- Money, power, and a stable route onto campus.
+- To stay small enough not to attract real law or Oversight heat.
+- To recruit students like Ben as low-risk couriers.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Intimidation, blackmail, and “favors.”
+- Leveraging knowledge of who lives in places like Madera Ridge.
+- Very occasional magical muscle.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Ben = valuable asset / liability.  
+- Joe & Soren = potential leverage / problems if they get nosy.
+
+**How They Might Use the PCs:**
+- Drag Ben deeper:
+  - “Keep your mouth shut, give us intel, and no one bothers your family.”
+- Offer temptations:
+  - Cash, artifacts, illegal taps, forbidden lore about what flows under the Academy.
+
+---
+
+## 2. Student Factions & Cliques
+
+> Note: these aren’t rigid “gangs,” just overlapping social ecosystems. PCs can float between them.
+
+### 2.1 Mageball Team & Jocks
+
+**Name:** The Avalon [Team Name – e.g. “Stormwings”, “Arcana”]
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Physical casters and athletes; the kids whose worth is measured in yards and spell-impact.
+- Social gravity: parties, pep rallies, school pride.
+
+**Faces:**
+- **Chaz** – brain-damaged golden boy, all instinct, no strategy.  
+- **Millie** – initially bullied “nerd,” later tactical backbone of the team.  
+- Estrada as faculty anchor/coach.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- Win games, get scouted, bask in glory.
+- Keep Mageball funded and prioritized over “nerd clubs.”
+- Some of them genuinely want the team to be a family / escape from home.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Social dominance, locker-room politics, coach favoritism.
+- Using team status to get away with shit (skipping class, picking on people).
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Joe = potential star / weirdo.  
+- Soren = “that scary kid, avoid.”  
+- Ben = “clown who sells weed to benchwarmers.”
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- As muscle in social conflicts.
+- As a stake: admin threatening to cut the team if anomalies keep messing with the field.
+- As a conduit: Root anomalies manifesting during games.
+
+---
+
+### 2.2 Ridge Kids & Overachievers
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Kids from Madera Ridge and similar neighborhoods:
+  - Rich, often powerful parents.
+  - High expectations, legacy slots, glittering futures.
+
+**Faces:**
+- Ben’s classmates from the Ridge who actually *own* being rich.  
+- Student council types, valedictorian contenders, etc.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- Top grades, prestigious internships, clean transcripts.
+- To get out of the valley and into big-name academies or guilds.
+- To keep the school “respectable” – no scandals, no weird Root shit.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Pulling parent strings.
+- Manipulating admin with “concerned emails” about school safety.
+- Social exclusion and gossip.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Ben = traitor / poser trying to play poor.  
+- Joe = amusingly simple sports kid.  
+- Soren = walking disciplinary case.
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- As pressure on admin:
+  - “Our parents will pull donations if Oversight doesn’t get this under control.”
+- As antagonists who push for harsher restrictions after anomalies.
+
+---
+
+### 2.3 Drama / Choir / Arts Kids
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Theater, choir, band, visual arts – anyone whose first instinct is to turn trauma into performance.
+- Constantly rehearsing something too ambitious for the time/money they have.
+
+**Face:**
+- The flamboyant drama/choir teacher analogue (Lebovitz) – high standards, messy vibes.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- Big shows, screaming crowds, standing ovations.
+- To be taken as seriously as Mageball and “real magic.”
+- Space and budget that admin keeps giving to sports and “respectable” clubs.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Gossip, public callouts in thinly-veiled scripts.
+- Weaponized performances.
+- Controlling the rumor mill via backstage access.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Soren = perfect raw material for “tragic roles.”  
+- Ben = comic relief / potential drama fodder.  
+- Joe = hilariously miscast if they ever rope him into a show.
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- As a stage for literally anything:
+  - An opening night where Root anomalies hijack the show.
+  - A cover for secret meetings (“we’re just rehearsing late, sir”).
+
+---
+
+### 2.4 Conspiracy Club / Underground Zine
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Kids who don’t buy the official story:
+  - Korrin Gate, Oversight, leyline anomalies, weird staff behavior.
+- They make a zine / whisper network, half true, half nonsense.
+
+**Face:**
+- **Sebastian** – decapitation videos at 8am, heavy 9/11 truther energy, completely unhinged but occasionally right.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- To **prove** that the school is hiding something.  
+- To catalog every anomaly, rumor, and cover-up.
+- Clout in the “we were right the whole time” department.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Surveillance, gossip-trawling, breaking into records.  
+- Posting flyers, anonymous tip-scrolls, illicit sending-stone channels.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Perfect sources:
+  - “You were down in B2, right? What did you **really** see?”
+- Potential members / icons of resistance.
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- To feed the party weird leads (some true, some garbage).
+- As a way for the players to leak info anonymously.
+- As a faction D’serris absolutely hates.
+
+---
+
+### 2.5 Circle Kids / Stoners & Skaters
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Kids who spend more time at The Circle, the Wash, or Spin Alley than on campus.
+- Weed, cheap booze, minor crime, minor magic.
+
+**Faces:**
+- Ben (“Lil Stinky”) as a borderline member.  
+- Pip’s younger / campus-adjacent contacts.  
+- A rotating cast of burnout NPCs.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- To be left alone by admin.
+- Enough money and product to keep the party going.
+- Occasional big score (gear, relics, stolen ward-stones).
+
+**Methods:**
+- Low-key dealing, petty theft.
+- Hiding in blind spots (both literal and bureaucratic).
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Ben = one of theirs.  
+- Joe = “square but maybe fun to corrupt.”  
+- Soren = “do not get high with her, she will kill someone.”
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- As an information network that sees everything that happens off-campus.
+- As hooks for Ben’s personal arc (Pip debt, threats to family).
+
+---
+
+### 2.6 Rootwatch / Environmental Club
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Officially: environmental activism, Rewilding projects, sustainability.  
+- Unofficially: students who treat the Root as a **living being** rather than infrastructure.
+
+**Face:**
+- Druid dwarf physics/eco teacher analogue (Rojahn) – beloved, exasperated, low-key hardcore.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- To protect natural spaces around the valley.
+- To reduce “abuse” of the Root for convenience magic.
+- To push back against things like Titan Lance, Oversight overreach, and careless tapping.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Petitions, protests, direct action (e.g., sabotaging illegal taps).  
+- Rituals in the Wash / orchards / hills.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Soren = someone the Root is clearly watching, in a scary way.  
+- Joe = “we can radicalize this golden retriever if we explain it right.”  
+- Ben = “walking pollution, but he knows where stuff is.”
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- As allies against Oversight in later arcs.  
+- As a moral counterweight when D’serris wants to sacrifice branches.
+- As the first ones to sense that the Root’s “mood” is changing.
+
+---
+
+### 2.7 Faith & Fellowship
+
+**Core Vibe:**
+- Students from various faith traditions who want community and moral structure.
+- Mix of sincere believers, social climbers, and kids hiding from something.
+
+**Faces:**
+- Joe’s church group / Bible study analogue.  
+- A couple of very intense paladin/cleric types.
+
+**What They Want:**
+- To provide a sense of **order and meaning** in a world where magic and Root anomalies are terrifying.
+- To claim the “moral high ground” on campus issues.
+
+**Methods:**
+- Study groups, prayer circles, volunteer work.
+- Pressure campaigns on admin (“this club is inappropriate,” etc.).
+- Occasionally, exorcism-lite rituals when shit gets weird.
+
+**How They See the PCs:**
+- Joe = their golden boy / project.  
+- Soren = “needs saving or banning.”  
+- Ben = “bad influence, soul at risk.”
+
+**How They Might Be Used:**
+- As a vehicle to introduce Korrin Gate / Root theology from a different angle.
+- As a faction that pushes back on anything that looks like “Root-worship,” including Rootwatch and Soren’s arc.
+

Avalon/10_Canon/Leyline Crisis.md

@@ -15,7 +15,7 @@
   - High-traffic nodes (like Avalon),  
   - Vulnerable people (Soren, Fouadriel, etc.), and  
   - Old war-artifacts (like Pappy, Titan Lance tech, etc.)
-- The crisis justified building the **Root Oversight Array** and gave D’Serris his trauma + authority.
+- The crisis justified building the [[Factions#1.1 Root Oversight Committee ("The Array")|**Root Oversight Array**]] and gave D’Serris his trauma + authority.
 
 ---