Second Dawn: William Cone
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This is a reference document for the LARP The Second Dawn.
William Cone Player: Richard S Immortal Construction Worker Age: 362/40ish
Additional information (read first): Ageless, Cataclysm, Black Science, Sickness
Background: You were born in 2065, amidst a world of crumbling powers. You came from a poor family in Iowa, and after finishing community college you joined the United States army. It was pure and clean, streamlining your mind and will and body, giving you the focus and direction you’d been looking for. One of the first to start getting the anti-aging treatments and a host of other cybernetic upgrades besides, you were a Green Beret, an elite commando, a master of combat and infiltration and demolitions. For twenty years, you reveled in being the best of the best; nothing and noone could stop you. But the Cataclysm stopped everything. Even your beloved government disintegrated, as mushroom clouds peppered the buried missile silos across the Midwest. All that you had ever fought for was wiped away in the blink of an eye. You only survived because you were on leave at the time, home visiting your family. You stayed there, protecting your older sister Maureen Inglis and her young son Evan, foraging and fighting to get them what they needed to survive. But your treatments had made you ageless, and they’d had no such benefit. Maureen died a decade later, the world still in its dark age, and Evan ran away a year later. Seeking something to do, you joined the gangs, fighting and striving. With your training and enhancements, you wrestled your way to the top, but you found it meaningless and unsatisfying, so you snuck away for your own journeys. You traveled eastwards, sometimes living out a few years or decades with a companion or lover or wife before fate pulled you apart. The ones you loved most, the ones you cared for most, all grew old and sick and died. Love was beautiful but fleeting, each separation as painful as the last. You joined the army of Thomas Washington for a while, but you’d seen too much of death to want to cause any more. As a nation took form around you, you settled in New Providence; you found you loved the sight of the sea, and a simple industrial town would be a good place to stay for a few decades. But there you first met other “Ageless,” the half-dozen in the area who kept showing up decade after decade, looking the same, just like you did. That’s what kept you from moving, at first; the presence of others who remembered the old days, who understood the loss and exhaustion and sorrow of watching so many generations die around you. After your life of war and travel, of tumult and fire, you eventually found the things that really matter, the things that last. The only pleasures and joys that never get old are the simplest ones: the feel of your muscles in use, the worthy exhaustion at the end of a day’s physical labor. You like to work with your hands, to make and build, out in the sun and using your body, hammering and welding, creating rather than killing. A few years ago, you had an immensely strange experience. You’d been working on the Second Dawn project for a while already, a well-paying excuse to work on the most interesting project you’d ever seen. Highly-placed government suits came to look at the project often enough, and this time it was the Minister of the Watch, a man named Luther Gaines, come to inspect the ship and the Tinker engineers for signs of Black Science. You always watched the dignitaries from the scaffolding; a few minutes’ entertainment. But this time, you nearly fell off when you saw him. He looks just like Evan… just like your nephew who left home hundreds of years ago. You asked around some other Ageless, making sure he couldn’t actually be Evan, another of your unaging kind, but all evidence stood against that idea. He must be your descendant, a dozen generations down from your sister’s child! Despite all the times you’d settled down, you’d never wanted a family yourself- though maybe that was the wrong choice, given the upswelling of emotion you felt when seeing Luther. He will grow old eventually, you suppose; the pleasure of helping him will fade in time as he passes beyond the grave, but hopefully he’ll have children too. In order to work on helping him, you signed up to be an informant for the Watch. The Watch’s primary mission is to find and destroy black science, but its mission has expanded over the generations to include a lot of internal security and intelligence. You don’t intend to betray anyone you care about, only to help root out criminals and black science, as a means to the end of helping and guiding your grand-nephew. Finally, there is the problem of the recent sickness. Patricia Kennedy was not a particular friend of yours, but she was an Ageless. She died of tuberculosis, a once-curable disease. You’d like to get your hands on those Tinker archives, and find out in there how to make a vaccine for it. Of course, tuberculosis is half the problem; maybe the isn’t anything special about the strain that got Patricia, maybe instead something’s wrong with the Ageless treatments. Either way, the Tinker archives are probably the best way to find out. Those archives won’t be easy to get; you don’t know if it’s wise to let the Tinkers know about you Ageless. All this shows how clearly the Ageless community needs to organize. You’ve seen the same faces about, you know who each other are, but you don’t work together. Now that you have a cause and a goal, it’s time you finally all came together.
Roleplaying notes: You’ve been a warrior and a killer, but you’re long past all that now. You’ve found life’s true enduring joys in the simplest activities of all, manual labor, and from that you’ve come to cherish your life and immortality. You don’t think about it in these terms, but you’ve gained a true simple wisdom from your life’s lessons. Remember that everything but your work is a fleeting diversion- except, perhaps, your descendants.
Goals: 1) Help, protect, and guide Luther Gaines. 2) Organize those like you into a real community, and resolve the issues raised by Patricia’s death. 3) Avoid using your old skills unless absolutely necessary. 4) Ensure that you can keep making a living as a construction worker.
Opinions: Second Dawn: A nice idea, and a nice piece of work. But you care more about the fact that you helped build it than any supposedly lofty goal. Black Science: You suppose people have good reasons to fear and suspect it, but they have gone a bit overboard. You remember when electronics and AIs made life better for everyone, though supposedly they did make the Cataclysm possible as well. The Watch: It’s got some fanatics, but all told it does good work. Not only does it ferret out black science, but criminals and traitors and spies. You don’t wholly approve of the internal-security perspective, but you’ve taken an oath and you’ll keep it. The Watch usually stays out of partisan or personal politics, but the times it strays from that are the only times the Watch is truly malign. Tinkers: They claim to know the old ways, but you suspect you know more than any of them about most of the Ancient technologies. You don’t like the way they’re always so secretive with the knowledge they have. Religion: You grew up a Lutheran, but that was long ago. Natural theology appeals to you somewhat, but you aren’t particularly religious or knowledgeable.
Key Information: •Your original name is, in fact, William (“Bill”) Cone. •Most of your old cybernetic implants have long since failed, but not all. You had the broken systems removed, and your ageless body’s improved natural healing eventually allowed the old muscles and organs to regrow properly. •You suspect that Patricia was killed by something other than the tuberculosis; it just seems so unlikely that an Ageless would succumb to disease after all this time. •You are an informant for the Watch, the Eastern Union’s internal security and black-science-hunting apparatus. You signed up for this originally out of a desire to help and forge a link to Minister Gaines, your descendant. •All Ancient ruins in the Eastern Union are property of the Tinkers. Independent ruin-delvers and spelunkers are criminals, though it’s not an oft-prosecuted crime. This matters to the Watch mostly because some spelunkers sell rather than destroying any finds using black science. •The Ageless have never organized at all; a good start would be a meeting to talk about this sickness and brainstorm ideas for dealing with it. •The Tinkers have kept archives from pre-cataclysm days but guard them jealously. •You still sometimes tell people that you’re originally from the Plains, but you generally tend not to worry too much about hiding your tracks across generations. You do see the value, you just don’t stress out about it.
People (in approximate order of importance): Luther Gaines, Minister of the Watch (David R): Your great-nephew, probably 15 generations down. You don’t know him well personally yet, but this is the chance to meet him, since you’ve been working for his agency for a few years now. You have a grandfatherly perspective. Is he healthy? Is he successful? Is he happy? Does he have a wife and children? Mario Patriarca (Paul S): Manager of the construction crew, he cares about his workers a great deal. His heart is in the right place with this strike idea, but you need to be sure you’re comfortable with whatever outcomes may fall from this. Jules Dyer (Thomas L): An agent of the Watch. You’ve exchanged a few letters in the past weeks; he seems much more interested in hunting black science, while you prefer to focus on criminal activity and enemies of the state. He’s higher-ranked than you, but not specifically your superior; the chain of command is murky. Also, he might have a copy of Patricia’s autopsy report, should you need one; Kathleen insisted that one be performed. Kathleen Penland (Katie G): Another local Ageless, she’s owned the popular Green Fox pub and restaurant for generations now. She’s always friendly and willing to hear one’s troubles, she acts like the centuries have given her wisdom. Hopefully she’ll help you organize the Ageless, she was a friend of Patricia’s. Elizabeth Rowell (Isabel K): Another construction worker, she moves and acts like someone who knows how to fight and how to kill. You don’t fear her, but neither do you want to be involved. She seems to be interested in you, but you’ve mostly just arranged your shifts and work locations to keep your distance. Russ O’Malley (Santo S): Another worker, he’s a good man, though he’s grown increasingly unhappy over the lack of money. You know he does some spelunking of Ancient ruins on the side; you’ve reported that to the Watch, since it could involve selling black science. Rawle James Kershwin (Sean C): Another construction worker, he mostly keeps to himself. He comes from the Appalachian Confederacy, occasionally telling stories about that simple, quiet land. You know he sends most of his money home, so he too must be unhappy about the pay cuts. Franklin Kennedy (Matt W): Patricia’s widower, he seemed pretty shaken up at the funeral. He’ll probably want to be involved in these events that stem from her death, but he’s a mortal, so you aren’t sure how that will work out. Charles Bazett/Christopher Knapp (Paul E): An Ageless who used to live around here, but left a couple generations ago. For some reason he’s now the Minister of the Borders; why would he take such a public post? Niallghas Tinker/Niles Maddox (Aaron B): A clever Ageless, he’s been in and out of New Providence recently. He hasn’t yet explained why he’s now pretending to be a Tinker, but maybe you can find the time to ask him. Donald Baxter (Jerry S): One more local Ageless, he’s been a trader and businessman since before you came to New Providence. He likes his work, and it gives his life meaning. He often trades in black science. Edward Archibald (Thomas L): An Ageless who’s found a slightly different answer to the problems of immortality. He too has chosen to pursue the simple pleasures, but he seeks physical pleasure instead of physical work. To each their own. Rosetta Jones (Suzanne G): Some rich fancy friend of Patricia’s, you saw her at the funeral. Captain Ivy Pearce (Rachel O): She’s going to fly that ship you built, so you’d like to meet this now-famous woman before she does so! Haley Jean Cole (Xephyr Z): A local repairwoman, she seems like a nice but over-excitable woman.
Ratings: Pilot: 1 R: 0 D: 2 G: 3
Nametag Symbols: P, O, G, F
Attributes: Physical: Defense 5 Pool Rating 5 [] [] [] [] [] Mental: Defense 3 Pool Rating 3 [] [] [] Social: Defense 2 Pool Rating 2 [] []
Recoveries: -Stay calm in the face of stress, surprise, danger, or excitable people (+1 point, 3/hour) -Concretely assist the Watch without directly betraying something you care about (+2 points, 1/hour) -Have a private conversation with Luther Gaines (+3 points, twice ever)
Abilities: Penetrating Insight, supposed to be here, fisticuffs, attack, a killer’s will, trajectory plotter, unflappable, survivor (x2), judge and mark
Items: Knife, Pistol, Grenade, Smoke bomb
