Beneath Cold Boughs

OOC Info

The setting is Ormwood, a neighbourhood of the city of Blackmouth, New England. Ormwood was once a pleasant town in its own right before being absorbed by Blackmouth in the early 20th Century, and has been going downhill almost since then. A century ago it was a place where well-heeled types lived to avoid the sprawl of the growing city, full of elegant townhouses, European-style monumental architecture and wide, tree-lined avenues. These days many of the townhouses are tenements, the architecture is blackened by traffic smoke and graffiti and the trees choked by smoke and neglect.

The starting point of focus for the chronicle will the Willowgate Arcade, a 19th century indoor mall once noted for its neoclassical architecture and a focal point of the centre of Ormwood in its heyday but now fallen far and intended to be demolished soon as part of a much-vaunted renovation of the area.

(real world example - Queens Arcade but older, taller and wider)

Characters

This is chronicle will be starting with mortal characters who will over the course of the story be crossing over into Beast the Primordial. It is intended to be be character focused but the GM is very rusty so asks that you bear with her.

Characters should be connected to the Willowgate Arcade, such as someone who works there or otherwise has a reason to be in the arcade. Even a customer is fine, but ideally a regular or a local rather than someone there just on a whim.

Characters are standard mortal characters made according to Chronicles of Darkness rules (5/4/3 attributes, 11/7/4 skills, 7 merits). Try to make normal sorts of people, the GM will ask for explanations for attributes above 3, or skills or merits above 2.

Character backgrounds are very much appreciated and so will earn extra XP. The best way to do this would be to answer some of these character background questions:

• 20 Questions for Deep Character Creation: +1 XP for v. basic answers, +1 additional for full answers and answering all GM followup questions.
• 100 Questions to ask your character: +2 XP for v. basic answers, +2 additional for full answers and answering all GM followup questions.

Dramatis Personae

Main Characters

• Diana Graves - Ruthless property flipper. Amateur empire builder. Partner at Condor Acquisitions.