Beneath Cold Boughs

The Story

Season 1 - Things Fall Apart

It began with the dead man found by the great stone tree that forms the centerpiece of Willowgate Arcade. Shocking to encounter and sad to consider that someone was forced to break into the Arcade to find some shelter from the autumn cold, but a sad fact of life in a city such as Blackmouth. No-one even knew his name. Some put flowers at the base of the tree in memoriam but life moved on, but not for all. Three of those who found the body - Morris Mayfair, brusque tobacconist and man's man, Jane Barrows, hurrying to open her parents' convenience store before class, and Diana Graves, present in the Arcade see it torn it down - remember something differently: that the man was found hung from the branches of the stone tree by chains of wrought iron, that it had taken three people and a pair of bolt cutters to bring him down, and that his lips had moved soundlessly when they found him, spelling out alien words without the breath to voice them.

Things began to fall apart then. First came the dreams. All three had often suffered through troubled nights, dreaming of old fears and sins buried but not forgotten, but now they came with renewed intensity and interspersed with images of the hanged man and the tree. Diana suffered the worst of it, unable to sleep because of the stink of rot that permeated the home she had made of her office in the Arcade. She turned to nocturnal exploration of the Arcade to find and stop the stench, found the building had more structure than the plans she had and irritations grew into obsessions.

Then the visits began. First were the Save Old Ormwood protestors who assiduously avoided doing anything that could have allowed Diana to have them removed, their leader Layla Spenser chatting pleasantly with the Blackmouth PD patrol officers who came by when Diana tried to have them ejected. Then came the nocturnal visitor, a young woman who was fascinated by the tree and equally so by Diana. She introduced herself as Mel and offered help investigating and resolving the strange happenings, yet avoided giving any details.

Problems began to spin out of control. Voiceless whispers echoed in the central atrium of the arcade in the quiet hours. Diana felt herself being watched even when alone. Layla Spenser returned, this time with cryptic warnings and a plea for Diana not to go ahead with plans to demolish the Arcade. Research uncovered a dark history to Ormwood and the Willoughby family, and investigations revealed the presence of a basement not on the current plans, sealed up 30 years prior, and Diana became obsessed with unsealing it. All while trying to charm, cajole or strongarm the remaining businesses into selling up, and being defeated at every turn by Morris.

The basement was opened with a yawning silence and Diana quickly descended into it, volunteering Hank to come with a light to cut through the gloom. Beneath the arcade lay a tangled maze of access corridors and the remnants of heating ducts, many of their pipes torn out and repurposed into an attempt at a circle that filled the room that lay beneath the atrium. Rusting remnants to one side showed it had been a boiler room but now it was dominated by a complex branching network of stone roots, as if the carved tree above had grown down into the void below. The broken pipes had been formed into circle of copper and lead about the outer edge of where the roots grew, while the air was thick with darkness and a susurrus of voices whispering unknown words. Jane quickly began recording them, having followed Diana into the darkness with Morris, before things went wrong. Unnoticed by anyone, Hank had begun mouthing the words, eyes staring at the tree as he began trying to carve open his wrists with the edge of a chisel. Morris's quick actions stopped him from doing so and retreat from the darkness was decided to be wise.

Truths and more mysteries were revealed in quick succession. Mel returned, bringing a friend and was horrified at what had happened and what lay beneath the Arcade. She spoke of abysses and verges, of ley lines and of the complex but amateurish binding that was woven around the tree, and of magic. Her friend Carmine called the three sleepwalkers because he could not find a better term for them. The tree was unknown but obviously dangerous, and it was calling to the three of them, Diana in particular. The words the whispers had spoken were Old Norse and had been the same ones the hanged man had tried to speak with his last, breathless moments.

The Whispers of the Tree

Veistu, hvé rísta skal? Veistu, hvé ráða skal?
Veistu, hvé fáa skal? Veistu, hvé freista skal?
Veistu, hvé biðja skal? Veistu, hvé blóta skal?
Veistu, hvé senda skal? Veistu, hvé sóa skal?

Translated:

Knowest thou how to cut? Knowest thou how to rule?
Knowest thou how to win? Knowest thou how to tempt?
Knowest thou how to ask? Knowest thou how to bleed?
Knowest thou how to kill? Knowest thou how to sacrifice?

Mel and Carmine advised caution with the unknown, that they would seek further information before any rash actions were taken, but a moment of madness threw such caution to the wind. Diana knew the tree was offering something and almost paid its price for it before hestating at the last moment, at which point Morris saw a chance to be rid of the meddlesome realtor and offered her to the tree. Jane found herself pointing a gun at a man who was almost family and as ambition, betrayal and disgust filled the air the world fell away into frozen moment, then darkness and nothing more.

Each of the three found themselves lost deep in their nightmares - Diana in the burning tenement, Morris drowing in the mire and Jane lost in the screaming, thorn-filled garden. Unlike before, these nightmares did not end and instead repeated in lucid eternities of torment, while they could feel others caught in that eternal moment and suffering with them. After a timeless age, each turned from their personal pain to the others lost with them and in doing so they faced their nightmares. They saw that they were mirrors without a reflection, as hollow and incomplete as they were, wishing to be whole. In that moment of completeness and of reaching out to others, the three awoke but not to the world they knew. (see Dreams of the Children)

The three awoke on a broad beach of black sand beneath alien stars, while far out to sea something resembled the tree was slowly sinking into the still, black sea. It must have been immense for it seemed to be descending achingly slowly, almost as if the sea is savouring the consumption of the fallen thing. The beach itself was calmingly still, blown only by a gentle sea breeze that carried scents of forgotten days until the wind shifted and a familiar scent of stone and smoke, the smell of city, blew over the three from a yawning cave mouth set back from the sea. Confused and disorientated, they walked to the cave and stepped through as they felt something call to them.

Awareness of the world returned and they found themselves back in the basement of the Arcade, confused and yet at peace. The thing in the tree was gone, the basement was silent and nothing would be the same.

Season 2 - The Widening Gyre

1. In Bloom - Four weeks have passed since the incident with the Tree, those involved have tried to forget and get on with their lives but nothing is that easy.

Dramatis Personae

The Children of the Tree

Three people united by an event they do not understand, driven by new, alien hungers and thrust into a world where secrets cut and ignorance kills.

• Diana Graves - Ruthless property flipper. Amateur empire builder. Partner at Condor Acquisitions.
• Morris Mayfair - Former small businessman. Amateur boxer. Brute with moments of surprising insight.
• Jane Barrows - Child of Willowgate family business owners, trying to get out.

Ormwood Development and Contractors

• Alan Coleman - President of Ormwood Development. Avaricious, tenacious and dancing to an unknown master's tune.
• Melanie Roth - VP of External Affairs. Deals with Condor Acquisitions, among others. Dislikes Diana.
• Hank Torres - Foreman working for Ormwood Development Ltd. Has seen some shit but needs the money too bad to back away now.

Other Characters

• Carmine - Smooth, sharp-dressed, needle-sharp, also definitely a wizard.
• 'Big' Jimmy Martin - Legitimate businessman, childhood friend of Mayfair.
• Krystal Garner - Cagey college student who sought self-defence lessons from Morris.
• Daniel Matthews - PI hired by Mayfair to investigate Graves. Tall, well-dressed, quiet, African.
• Mel - Curious, academic, definitely a wizard. Fascinated by ley lines and geomancy.
• Fred Spears - Ex-custodian of Willowgate. Resilient, southern, African-American, no fucks to give.
• Laylah Spenser - Organiser for Save Old Ormwood campaign. Large, middle-aged, smiling, mixed-race lady.
• Suleiman - Mage, architect, Mel's master. Stern, serious, concealing curiosity and political will.

• 

  Carmine

• 

  Daniel Matthews

• 

  Krystal Garner

• 

  Layla Spenser

• Mel.jpeg

  Mel

• 

  Suleiman

Notable Locations

• Willowgate Arcade - Site of Mayfair Tobacconists, Barrows Groceries, and a dozen other businesses. Soon to be demolished.
• Imperial Building - <ADDRESS>, location of Condor Acquisitions new headquarters (FLOOR)
• Presidents Row - Neighbourhood within Ormwood, site of a new project for Condor Acquisitions on behalf of Ormwood Development

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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.