NPC Database - Minor Characters & Resident NPCs

[MikaKeegan]

Skellington's Strip Club

Danny "Skellington" Walker
Court: Autumn
Seeming/Kith: Darkling/Gravewight
Virtue/Vice: Prudence/Lust
Appearance: As per his name, Skellington Walker appears as an animated skeleton with a round head and unnaturally long fingers. The bones of his face bend and flex like wax, allowing him to convey a normal array of expressions not typically available to the average skull. Not that it typically matters, as Walker is almost always smiling anyway. He wears a royal purple tuxedo with coat tails and a matching top hat, a tribute to the infamous Baron Samedi of Voodoo lore.

His mask is not much different, save for a thin layer of sinew and leathery ebon skin. Walker appears to be an elderly black man, bald and emaciated, yet somehow possessing the life and vigor of a man a quarter of his age. His posture is ramrod straight, except when he dances, at which point he possesses unnatural flexibility and grace. He can blow the trumpet like Louis Armstrong and the saxophone like Clarence Clemmens, despite smoking eight packs a day, drinking like a fish, and looking like he should be hooked up to a ventilator . In both forms, he somehow has a lecherous leer in his eyes, especially when he decides to take in one of his dancer's shows.

Background: Born in New Orleans, Louisiana, and growing up around the height of the Jazz Age, Danny Walker's musical skills are likely what attracted the attention of his Keeper. He claims the Fae who abducted him was Baron Samedi himself, and can often be heard telling fantastic tales of the memories of his durance. No one quite knows how he finally escaped (or why), but when he did, it was almost fifty years later. Walker hit the road, using his musical talent and his newfound abilities to commune with the dead to become something of an underground Jazz legend. Eventually, he saved up enough money to open a club of his own in Boston, which he named "Skellington's", the name he had taken since becoming a Changeling. A combination strip club and jazz lounge with a spooky voodoo theme, the club has been the center of much controversy in the city of Boston, but has thrived as a popular student venue and Changeling haven. Since the day it opened Walker's band, the Bone Daddy 7, has been as much of a fixture in the club as the strippers who perform along side them.

Given Walker's gregarious nature and joie de verve, many wonder why he supports the Autumn Court when the Spring Court is more suited to his nature. Many suspect this due to his affinity with the dead, or part of some bargain he struck with Jack Carroll. In truth, Walker does sympathize with the Patriot Factions of Emerald Court and their cause. Above all, however, he is a pragmatist. The best way to ensure his own survival is to ally with the winning side, and in Samhain Town that's the Autumn Court. Spring is little more than a puppet, reduced to a shell of its former self by the Autumn King's clandestine war. Any victories won by the small bands of Antler Court rebels are as hollow as their Court, for Carroll's retribution is swift and merciless. For Walker's part, he prefers to remain nominally apolitical, although many suspect his true loyalties are less neutral than they appear.

Unlike almost all Changelings, Walker rarely speaks an ill word about his Keeper, and indeed seems fond of telling wildly amusing tales of his durance with Samedi. This has been cause for much speculation among the Changelings of Samhain Town. Most assume that the stories are just that- stories concocted by Walker either for others amusement, or perhaps to gloss over the true horror of his time in Arcadia. The more paranoid suspect he might be a Fae Loyalist. Still others claim Samedi was not a Fae at all, but the actual Loa of the Voodoo religion, and that Walker is his son. Whatever the truth is, only two beings know for sure. One would have to be completely mad to ask the first, and the second will likely take the secret to his grave before telling anyone.


Spookshow Baby
Court: Autumn
Seeming/Kith: Beast/Hunterheart
Virtue/Vice: Faith/Lust
Appearance: Spookshow Baby is an archetypal black cat- when she crosses your path, you know you're in for trouble. She might just be worth it though. Her curvy body is covered with short, downy black fur, with silky hair the same color hanging at shoulder length. The bangs barely drape in front of luminous green eyes, large even by cat standards. Her ears and nose are completely feline in nature. While her lips are human, and often painted in blood red lipstick, her smile or snarl reveals a hint of fang. Her claws remain hidden in her fingers and toes, though she frequently flexes them for show both onstage and off. A long, slender cat's tail waves lazily from above her shapely behind, and is often shown off on top of a thong or from a conveniently worn hole in her jeans.

Viewed through her mask, Baby is still a sex kitten incarnate. Despite her fur coloring, her skin is ghostly pale, in stark contrast with her hair. Her eyes remain large and green, with a slight almond shape to them that suggests some slight Asian blood in her heritage - perhaps a grandparent or great-grandparent - and they almost always have a predatory gleam to them. She retains her heart shaped face, small sharp nose, and pouty lips. Mortal or Changeling, man or woman, horny college student or dirty minded professional, she's caught many an eye over the years - people who didn't realize how deep the predator in her goes, and got more than they bargained for.

Description:

Sebastian Harrow
Court: Autumn
Seeming/Kith: Beast/Hexkin
Virtue/Vice: Fortitude/Pride
Appearance:
Description:  

[MikaKeegan]

Streets of Southie

Cancer John
Court: Autumn
Seeming/Kith: Beast/Skitterskulk
Virtue/Vice: Fortitude/Greed
Appearance: They call him Cancer John for a reason, and it's not just the pale skin marred with what looks like keloids and carcinomas. It's the way he stands, perpetually stooped like a long burning cigarette whose ash hasn't quite tumbled yet. It's his nicotene stained teeth. His chipped fingernails. His twitching eyes, jaundiced and dead looking. His filthy skin draped paper thin over his skeleton. He's a disgusting man, made all the more disturbing by the cloud of flies that constantly surrounds him... and occasionally wriggle beneath his skin. When John moves, it's the skittish, twitchy movement of the flies. When he fights, he fights dirty, biting and scratching desperately.

When viewed through the mask, John is only slightly less disgusting. He has the hairless, sallow appearance of a chemo patient, mercifully free of the growths and parasites that aflict his mien. His teeth are still stained, and he smokes like a chimney. His eyes are rheumy, but at least alive. His movements are still unnerving, but the flies that surround his mien are absent ... mostly. When Carroll sends him on an assignment, he cleans up and dresses in a dark suit. The rest of the time, he's typically dirty and unwashed, looking like little more than a typical homeless man.

Background: Cancer John might have actually suffered from cancer at some point before his abduction. It's difficult to say, since no one really knows anything about him before his durance. Cancer John talks little of his past life, and when he does he often twists and changes details, or outright lies, as suits his agenda. No one's really bothered to sort fact from fiction. No one actually wants to get that close to him.

John's durance was spent in the custody of The Sharp Knifed Man, sometimes known as Dr. Lazarus, or The Surgeon Fiend. The Sharp Knifed Man works in the employment of the Midnight Circus as what can best be described as their plastic surgeon, gleefully sculpting and carving their human captives into whatever sort of changelings they require. In his spare time, the Sharp Knifed Man also conducts his own surgeries, cutting, slicing, and transplanting for no real reason other than to see what effect it has on the patient. Cancer John was one such patient, implanted with the most toxic and cancerous substances Arcadia and the Hedge had to offer, until the good doctor grew bored and tossed him aside to rot. As John crawled his way to the Hedge and to freedom, the flies took to him, planting their eggs in his cancerous skin, until they were as much a part of him as anything else.

Cancer John is a weak man. Not physically - in fact he's surprisingly strong and fit for a man of his build and apparent health - but weak of mind and heart. He knows it, and he acts like it. Wriggly and skittish like the creatures he takes after, he plays the part of the toadying, sycophantic servant for as long as it gets him what he wants. If threatened, he will crumple, pleading for mercy and acquiescing to any demands. When these techniques fail, he'll lash out in rage, being cruel, making wild threats, even fighting dirty, in an effort to escape.

Currently, the most powerful figure in John's world is Carroll, to whom he serves as a messenger and courier. On occasion he also serves as a thief, a blackmailer, and an assassin, but only if he can be sure there is no risk of being caught or hurt. Carroll is careful not to entrust Cancer John with any mission of vital importance - he knows John has no real loyalty, and only serves him so long as the short term benefits outweigh the immediate risks. For the rare occasions when one wants to seek him out, Cancer John can be found most often living and sleeping on the streets of Southie, or trolling the Fens for easy marks and companionship.  

[Stitchwork Doll]

Fenway & The Marshes

Grandmother Toad
Court: Winter
Seeming/Kith: Beast/Venombite
Entitlement: The Barony of Lesser Ones
Virtue/Vice: Prudence/Lust
Appearance: Grandmother Toad is a somewhat dowdy, although not entirely unattractive woman. She appears to be in her early to mid forties, although the changelings who know of her swear she's been around much longer. Her skin is mottled with green and brown, and has the smooth, slightly raised texture of her associated animal. Her mouth is slightly too wide for her face, her tongue long and thick, her fingers and toes webbed. She's short and slightly overweight for her height, in a pleasingly plump way.

She's rarely ever viewed through her Mask, as she almost never leaves her Hollow or the Hedge anymore. When she does, she appears as a early middle-aged caucasian woman. Her eyes and mouth are slightly smaller than they appear in her mein. Her hair is short, frizzy, and brown through her mask, despite her mein being entirely hairless. Her clothes sometimes give her the appearance of being homeless, but she is otherwise clean and well kept. On the few occasions she ventures into the mortal world, she is most often found somewhere in the Fens. Very rarely does she wander into the city.

Description: The name she took upon escaping her Keeper has long been forgotten, possibly even by her. Her detractors call her "The Swamp Hag", "The Fens Siren", and "The Lesbian of the Marshes", though this last title is somewhat inaccurate. Most just call her Grandmother Toad. She is one of the wisest Changelings in the Freehold of Samhain, and possibly one of the oldest as well. She is widely respected as the most knowledgeable Hedge Guide in the freehold, as well as an expert on many things Goblin - especially Goblin Fruits, Hobgoblins, and the Goblin Market.

Grandmother Toad makes her home in a small grotto Hollow, the entrance to which is hidden in the Fens. She rarely spends time in the mortal world anymore, preferring to venture out into the Hedge to slake her wanderlust. While she harbors some sympathies for the Patriots of the Spring Court, she disdains Freehold politics as a whole and refuses to get involved. Reclusive as she is, most people leave her alone unless they really need her services, and that's the way she likes it.

... Most of the time, anyway.