[UA] UA in our small college town

[Judd Karlman]

I want to avoid creating a World of Darkness effect in our upstate NY town...
 
Comments, critiques and such are appreciated.
 

The game takes place in Ithaka, NY, home of Ithaka College and Kornell University (all misspelled with a K purposefully to accentuate the fictional status of the city, since many of the gamers live in or about Ithaca, NY). 

White Stag Hunters: Afte generations of hunting the albino deer on the army base just north of Ithaka, NY, the White Stag Hunters have taken a hankering to hunting killing magical creatures or as they call them, "Fuckin' freaks." 

They have a lodge where 9 white deer heads are displayed and now 10 human heads, a clockwork dog and a simalcrum in a jar. 

There is a White Stag Hunting Comission who speak through the white deer heads on the lodge wall. They declare when certain types of magic hunting seasons are in session and which weapons are in use. Whether these are the spirits of the hunters' kills or just delusions brought out through the hunters' fragmented and twisted psyches remains to be seen. 

Adept Knife Season is a popular time of year, running from the day after Thanksgiving until January 2nd. Frankenstien Rifle/Shotgun Season, which allows the firearm destruction of any creation is also popular especially since if the adept who created the best attacks, the hunter is allowed to defend himself. Due to the loud nature of firearms and the attention they draw, this season is only permissable for the week of Passover in the springtime. 

Most hunters go out of town for their hunting, into the cities (NYC, Syracuse, Albany, Buffalo, Rochester) but sometimes they catch wind of a local adept and take their shot. 

The White Stag Hunters are a widespread cult with a disturbing number of local town administrators and law enforcement among their number. 

Kingly Conflicts: The town is a known to be the bi-sected by a powerful ley-line that runs down the gorge which splits the town in two. The area is split by locals and students, a conflict that is most viscerally played out with their True King conflict. 

Uli Sawyer, True King of Students - Uli has been in town for a few years, doing some post-doc work at Kornell. He has increased his True King of Students channel grow by leaps and bounds while in this town due to Kornell's monopoly on the ley line. 

Uli doesn't know nor understand this, he only knows that he is sublimely happy as a student and plans to drag out his scholarship for as long as he can. He does consider some members of the local underground scene his drinking buddies and has been dragged into some trouble but nothing that will get in the way of his studies. 


Farrah Bostwick, True Queen of Locals - Nurturing a real hatred for the university and college that flank the town like mob collectors looking for a cut, Simon knows there there is some power in being the most vocal person at town meetings and the most visible bicyclist in town. She writes this power off as being the power of Democracy, not realizing she is channeling an Avatar. 

Farrah's father was fired from his job as a Kornell Contractor just weeks before they would owe him his pension for retirement and died in a shoddy old age home just outside of town. She wants to believe that there is some larger conspiracy through the university but hasn't found conclusive proof yet. 

Time will tell. 


Uli and Farrah have found themselves on the flip side of quite a few conflicts and they can feel the power of their disagreements. If they were to become more cognizant of the nature of their channels and how the cosmos works, a marriage between the two, be it literal or just symbolic would be a powerful thing. 

Friends of Ezra - This order of rich and in the know adepts are mainly those who tried to make a go of the underground scene in cities all over the world and settled down upstate to take life a little slower. There are few clued in up here and the ley line is a constant source of charges. 

The Friends of Ezra are a brutal cabal of well-to do and influential people somehow linked to the university who use the formidable ley line that bisects the city for their own personal gain. 


The Bridge Trolls - Every year students jump off the bridges around Ithaka and feed the trolls. Little do the suicidal students know that when they jump they spend their afterlife under the bridge, staying until they can hand the title off to the next jumper. 

The Trolls take forms unique to their situation and misery. A math student might be covered in cuts that look like mathematical equations or a failed med. student might look like a characiture of a doctor. 

These creatures are at the height of their powers during the winter time. 

Salt Miners - The salt mines under Ithaka are a vital source of power. There are highways under Kayuga Lake that have never seen the sun. The Salt Miners are the miners who risk their lives in the mines and many families have been doing this work for generations. 

They gain mojo through a complicated ritual having to do with re-enacting famous baseball games in their underground baseball fields, often with the benefit of signed baseballs or mitts used in the games. 

Throughout the years, many strange rituals have been created underground but so few abovegrounders know about them that many have been lost to time. Once a year, friends and family are invited to see the mines and it is a coup for anyone in the underground to score an invite.



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