C.O.A.S.T., occult secret agents against the supernatural, signup thread

THIS RP IS LIVE, HOWEVER IT IS STILL OPEN TO NEW PLAYERS. Main thread link. Discussion thread link.

Introduction

The room you were seated in was rather plain, like you might find in any office building. Cheap, rectangular tables placed end to end in rows, with folding chairs on just one side of the tables, all facing towards the same side of the room. There was a setup for a projector pointing to the wall all the chairs were facing, which was on, though showing just a blank white image. The room could hold maybe two dozen people tops, though not all the seats were used while you were there. A Caucasian, middle aged man with short brown hair and a short matching beard, wearing a lab coat, was standing beside the projection, giving his presentation.

"So, the reason you're all here, as you've all come to learn... A terrible secret of our world: There are things that go bump in the night," the man said, and started pressing the remote to show the next images on the projector. A transparent, ghostly figure standing in the middle of a living room; some enormous silhouette of a figure in a forest, casually pushing a large pine tree aside in its stride; the skeleton of what seemed to be a wolf or dog, leaping to attack a man who was clearly trying to get away from it. And so on it continued, each still image showed things that clearly should not exist. "Malicious supernatural entities or phenomena, as we call them officially, but most of our agents prefer to call them 'Bumps'. A few call them 'Spooks'. That's the bad news, but the good news is we have a way to fight back against them, which is where you come in. You're all here in this room because there is something special about you; something that gives you an edge, and a fighting chance against these things. As such, you've all been offered a position here in our Covert Occult Activity Strike Team, subdivision of the Bureau of Rituals, Occultism, Oddities and Monsters. C.O.A.S.T. serves as our defense against these Bumps, with jurisdiction across nearly all of North America. Follow this training properly, and with any luck by this time next year you'll be out there in field operations, maintaining the secret to keep the public from a mass panic, investigating possible supernatural incidents, and most importantly, putting down problematic Bumps. Welcome to the strike team, now let's get started..."

... Some months or years later...

You've just received an internal memo, informing you that C.O.A.S.T. is transferring you to a new unit being formed, headquartered just outside of Seattle, Washington. "Hope you don't mind the rain, operative," the memo ends with. The next chapter of your crazy career is about to begin...

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The rules

Welcome to "C.O.A.S.T., occult secret agents against the supernatural" RP! The idea of this game is a mission to mission, Monster of the Week style game, where you play as operatives of a secret agency fighting against supernatural things inspired by the likes of reddit supernatural stories and other internet creepypastas. Before I get much more into the game though, I should go through the rules.

• As should go without saying but I will still be clear on anyway, the standard forum rules as well as the RP section rules apply to this game.

• Regarding posting pace: If your character is in a conversation, please give some time for everyone involved in the conversation to have a chance to reply to your character before you post again. This is so that people in other time zones may have a fair chance to actually take part in them, rather than just have two or more people in the same time zone blitz through an entire conversation while someone else's character apparently just stands there in silence.

• In addition, when there is active combat happening that your character is part of, you are only allowed to post once between the posts of whoever is controlling the foe you're fighting.
  • By default that would be me, but in the circumstance that I am letting someone besides me control a monster for a mission, or for some reason PvP is occurring, then the rule for those people is that they can either only post after everyone they're combating against has posted once, or once 24 real life hours have passed since their previous post, whichever comes first. (This is also what I will hold myself to most of the time, except when a player character does something that effectively ends the combat, thus making these rules no longer necessary.)

• For the time being, everyone is allowed just one character, (with the technical exception of one of the character classes) but I am open to the possibility of this rule being changed later.
  • You may switch characters if you no longer feel like playing your current character.

• If any information is being posted that only one character should actually know about, I will put it in spoiler text. Now, everybody is still allowed to read it, even if it's not directed to your character, but of course I would prefer you not metagame and have your character act on information they don't know.

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The setting and tone

Given it's the internet, I know some people are probably looking at this and thinking, "so it's just like the SCP Foundation, then?" and my answer is, no, not really. There's a similar on the surface premise in that it's a secret organization up against the supernatural, but SCP leans into sci-fi and cosmic horror, and a very ends-justify-the-means attitude that results in the Foundation killing lots of people. This game and setting however, I intend to be very much so not that. The closest equivalents I can think of for what I intend this game to be like is somewhere between the Hellboy movies, (the ones with Ron Perlman) and Men In Black if they used occult magic against creepypasta things instead of sci-fi guns against aliens. B.R.O.O.M. will wipe people's memories in order to keep secrets from going public, but they won't kill people just because they know, and they most certainly wouldn't keep something extremely dangerous around in a glorified test chamber and sacrifice people to it to see how it works.

Also, despite the fact that you'll be taking on things that could come straight out of creepypasta, and that could and/or have killed people, the tone of this RP isn't really meant to be horror. I may go for some spooky aesthetics and atmosphere at times, but I don't intend it to be outright scary.

• The World: Like Reality, Unless Noted, which mainly is below. There are other various supernatural related things different with the setting than in real life, all of which are secret from the public, and none have a real noticeable effect on the overall structure of the world. You are allowed to invoke this somewhat in your character back stories, within reason. The in-game starting date will be late September of 2021; the only major change from real life will be that the pandemic never happened, to simplify character interactions. (Yet somehow major political and world events are otherwise still basically the same.)

• About C.O.A.S.T.: As mentioned, the Covert Occult Activity Strike Team is a subdivision of the Bureau of Rituals, Occultism, Oddities and Monsters; basically, B.R.O.O.M. represents the efforts of the U.S., Canada, and Mexico against supernatural phenomena as a whole, while C.O.A.S.T. specifically is the field agents who actually go out and face those things. The other parts of B.R.O.O.M. include a magic R&D department, trying to further humanity's understanding of magic and supernatural entities, (keyword, trying) a division that focuses on keeping proof and knowledge of the supernatural out of the media and internet, a division that covertly searches for possible new recruits, and then other various bureaucratic functions and such. So you guys, as part of C.O.A.S.T., pretty much just worry about field assignments and the paperwork of making reports. (The latter of which would be pretty much entirely off-screen for this game, since that’s boring.)
  • The history of B.R.O.O.M. is actually somewhat of a mystery even to themselves, due to loss of records through incidents that may or may not have been accidents. What they know for certain is that a secret society of sorts was founded following the infamous Salem Witch Trials.^note Which B.R.O.O.M. also happens to know didn't occur the way the official history books tell, and involved actual magic happening, but are unclear on the details of it beyond that, because again, lost records. This society at some later point went through a reformation of sorts and became B.R.O.O.M.'s immediate predecessor, the U.S. department of the supernatural. Then in 1964, after classified agreements between the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, the department of the supernatural would go through another reformation while also combining with their Canadian and Mexican counterparts, ultimately becoming B.R.O.O.M..

• About magic: For humans in the setting, only certain rare individuals are even capable of performing magic at all, and only in one of two distinct ways that are considered "magic". Though other people are capable of doing things that are supernatural in nature, they are not considered magic by B.R.O.O.M.. (See player classes.) First there is magic that is done by drawing geometric shapes on surfaces, laying out candles, and chanting ominously for minutes or even hours; B.R.O.O.M. calls this type of magic, "rituals". Then there is magic that can be cast quickly, needing only certain gestures and/or spoken phrases by the user to concentrate the idea of the magic in their mind and manifest it; B.R.O.O.M. calls this type of magic, "spells". B.R.O.O.M. actually consider spells the weaker of the two types of magic, despite their much greater convenience, because spells are only capable of doing simple and limited things, while rituals can achieve stronger and much more complex results. Again, any human who can do magic can either perform rituals or cast spells, but not both. (This limitation does not apply to the Bumps, because life is unfair.) Rituals can be used to "enchant" items for magic effects that potentially anybody can use, but the results of these are less, "RPG fantasy items" and more, "occult trinkets"; you could make a necklace charm that helps ward off evil spirits, but not a staff that shoots bolts of lightning. The real unfortunate thing about the magic is that it remains impossible to fully quantify, and two people doing the exact same thing to perform a ritual or spell are not guaranteed to get the same result.

• About the Bumps: Much like how magic doesn't necessarily work the same for everyone, the Bumps do not all seem to work the same way either. Some have clear origins, while others apparently spontaneously started existing out of nowhere. Some have clearly originated from human stories or religions, while others clearly came first and had the stories based off them; others still came first, but then were changed in some way by stories and rumors made about them. Some have a corporeal body, while others are completely incorporeal. Some can do magic, and even do things with magic that humans can't, like casting rituals as if they were spells; some bend the fabric of reality around them in some way. Some have negative reactions to "holy" symbols and "blessed" objects, though usually only certain ones, and not the same things for all Bumps; some Bumps don't care about them at all. Not all the Bumps are hostile; some don't care about humans at all, and some even try to help us, though they do unfortunately seem to be a minority. There's only been two things found in common with everything that B.R.O.O.M. calls a supernatural entity, AKA the Bumps. One is that something about them, whether it's something they do or the very fact that they exist at all, defies conventional scientific models; which after all is why they fall under B.R.O.O.M.'s jurisdiction. The second is that thankfully, there's always some way to get rid of them; whether it's killing them in a regular way, destroying them, or banishing them with magic, no Bump has proven impossible to take down.

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The classes

B.R.O.O.M. has come to identify four distinct archetypes of people who have some special relation to the supernatural that gives them an edge in taking on Bumps, all of which come in two subtypes. So these are the types of people they use as field agents for C.O.A.S.T., since they have a much higher chance of not dying in encounters with Bumps than regular people. While the two different subtypes of each have slightly different or very different strengths, they share the same drawbacks. All eight of them also have a symbol associated with them, which agents are encouraged to display when not incognito, for easy identification, but this is not a requirement; they're all based on a broom with additional symbols behind them. (NOTE: The "how you might have been recruited" section is not something you have to follow strictly; it is simply there as a suggestion on how to fit your character into the setting, and/or for those having a hard time thinking up that part of their character back story. If you want to come up with something completely different, that is okay.)

• Witch/Warlock, Ritualists and Spellcasters.
  • Some people have been proposing a more gender neutral and modernized name without stigmas, like arcanists or magi, but whatever you call them, these are the people capable of using magic. They actually form the majority of the rest of B.R.O.O.M.'s divisions, but since they are not always the best suited for field operations, they are not necessarily the majority of C.O.A.S.T. agents. For those who are suited for field operations though, they do tend to be among the most reliable and dependable.
  • Ritualists perform rituals. They certainly have a less convenient time in field operations, unable to use their magic quickly, but since there are some things you just can't get done without a ritual performed on site, few teams are ever deployed without at least having one available on call. Though they still suffer from the aspect of all magic being different for every person, it has been found that rituals still tend to remain at least somewhat similar in outcome when cast by different people, allowing Ritualists to rely on teachings from other Ritualists.
  • Spellcasters cast spells. They need to, in a way, internally visualize what their magic is going to do in order to cast it; gestures and shouting out spell words are therefore not necessarily required, but practiced as a way to make the internal visualization easier, and found to be effective in this manner. As has been mentioned though, Spellcasters' magic is actually far weaker than rituals, able to only pull off simple effects. Additionally, Spellcasters usually end up having a "type" of spells that they can do well, while having difficulty doing others, due to the way the spells need to be internally visualized, which is different for every Spellcaster. This also makes it anywhere from annoyingly difficult to just impossible for any given Spellcaster to teach another the exact same spells.
  • Drawback: Opposed to the other types of supernatural abilities, magic has this tendency to stand out a lot to the Bumps. So Witches and Warlocks can expect to be targeted more by them.
  • How you might have been recruited: Not all Witches and Warlocks even find out about their abilities, (especially Ritualists) but the fact that you're here means you have. You likely had some kind of fascination or obsession with the occult that led to your self discovery, and eventually attracted B.R.O.O.M.'s attention to you; hopefully before you got in over your head with anything...
  • Symbols: For Ritualists, a lit candle behind the broom. For Spellcasters, a lightning bolt behind the broom.

• Nullifier, aka "Null", Concentrated and Diluted.
  • Nullifiers, shortened to just Nulls, are highly valued by B.R.O.O.M. as potential field agents and security personnel, though unfortunately B.R.O.O.M. have difficulty even finding these individuals, and can't even be certain how common they are in human population. Nulls, through a completely unknown process, passively repel supernatural effects from themselves, (except that of other Nulls, obviously) giving them a great inherent defense against Bumps. Some Bumps even have a hard time actually noticing that a Null is there, depending on exactly how the Bump operates. Though there's not much they can do besides go toe to toe with Bumps, they are the best suited for it.
  • A Concentrated Null is effectively completely immune to any direct effects of the supernatural; any kind of spell, mind distortion, or reality warping effect does absolutely nothing to them. (Though they can still be harmed by say, a spell that throws a physical object at them.)
  • A Diluted Null only weakens the effects of the supernatural rather than being completely immune to it; however, a Diluted Null doesn't have this effect only on themselves, but rather spreads it in an aura around themselves, meaning non-Nulls can also benefit from the effect, as well as having a detrimental effect on some Bumps.
  • Drawback: A Null's effect is entirely passive, so they can't turn it off, and it doesn't discriminate on where the supernatural effect came from or what the intentions behind it were. This means you can't get as much magic help from your fellow agents, as well, and don’t get as much if any benefit from enchanted items.
  • How you might have been recruited: While Nulls are rare and hard to find, it seems a Null is a little more likely to be born if one or both of their parents were also a Null, while still being rare though; so perhaps you had a parent already in B.R.O.O.M.. Or you were caught up in some supernatural incident, and your ability helped you greatly in surviving it, which C.O.A.S.T. noticed when they came to clean things up.
  • Symbols: For Concentrated Nulls, a large X behind the broom. For Diluted Nulls, a large O behind the broom.

• Medium, Spirit and Time.
  • For Mediums, part of the veil of the world has been lifted, allowing them to know things they could not possibly know, and try to change what they see. Every Medium experiences this differently, but the end result of how they can use it is the same as the rest of their subclass. Having their mind open in this way does come with some risks, but C.O.A.S.T. considers this to be worth it.
  • Spirit Mediums can sense out any living person or thing, feel what they are feeling, and try to change those feelings temporarily. This means they can easily locate and identify Bumps, then use their ability to momentarily confuse or disorient a Bump to create a potential opening.^note B.R.O.O.M. highly discourages Spirit Mediums from using their ability to change feelings on fellow agents, and they can be subject to reprimand depending on the circumstances of it.
  • Time Mediums can see into the future, at least sort of. In their dreams they see hints and warnings of significant events to come, and while awake they will have some kind of sense of what's just about to happen; it isn't perfect nor incapable of error, but it's definitely not just their imagination. Many of them in C.O.A.S.T. use their ability in a mission control capacity, to alert teams of potential threats, but some decide to take their abilities out onto the field directly.
  • Drawback: Having their mind more open to the truth of the world also seems to make them more vulnerable. Any supernatural mental effects from Bumps hit Mediums harder than others, such as illusions or auras that change your mood. (I won't use this to take control of your character, because I know that almost always isn't fun as a player.)
  • How you might have been recruited: You see and know things you shouldn't, and stories of that attracted B.R.O.O.M.'s attention to test if you're a genuine Medium or just crazy, whether those stories were shared on social media or through the window of an asylum cell.
  • Symbols: For Spirit Mediums, a pair of eyes with a third open eye above them, behind the broom. For Time Mediums, a pair of eyes with an hourglass above them, behind the broom.

• Herald, of One and of Many.
  • It's a bit unclear how the name came about, but what's special about these people isn't really themselves; it's their friend(s). A Herald has somehow made some kind of connection with a friendly Bump(s). It may be a literal connection between the Bump(s) and the Herald's soul, or it may just be that the Bump(s) won't leave them alone, or won't listen to anyone else.^note As in, there needs to be a reason that your human character is sent along, and not just the friendly Bump(s) on their own, but that reason can vary. Whatever the case, for Heralds that have been cleared for field duty, it's been determined that their friend(s) can help C.O.A.S.T. against the bad Bumps. (You can be fairly flexible on exactly what the friendly Bump(s) is/are, and what they do, though I will ask you to change them if I find them to be too overpowered.)
  • Simply put, a Herald of One has a single friendly Bump of some large/strong fashion.
  • Whereas a Herald of Many has a whole pack of small/weak friendly Bumps with them.
  • Drawback: The only thing really special about Heralds is their friend(s); they are otherwise just a normal human.
  • How you might have been recruited: Like a Medium, stories of your special friend(s) may have reached B.R.O.O.M. to investigate, or like a Null, you were caught up in a supernatural incident and got through it thanks to your friend(s).
  • Symbols: For a Herald of One, a large banner behind the broom. For a Herald of Many, a collection of small banners behind the broom.

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The character sheet

• Name: What's your character called?

• Age and gender: In one place for convenience. Bear in mind C.O.A.S.T. does not send children into dangerous field operations, so your character should be an adult. And yes, you can be nonbinary or gender fluid or whatever you want.

• Class: Include sub-class.
  • If Witch/Warlock, put what your character specializes in with their magic here. If Herald, describe your friendly Bump(s) and what they do. If Medium, describe how your character perceives their abilities. Nulls won't really have anything to put here... What it feels like to them when their ability is blocking something, maybe?

• Skills: What talents does your character offer to C.O.A.S.T. that isn't related to their class? C.O.A.S.T. offers a variety of training courses that candidate agents can take on an elective basis, including of course combat and weapons training. Speaking of, while the other classes of agents may not necessarily need one and can thus possibly get away without it, Nulls are required to take combat and weapons training, as they are expected to use them, (especially to defend other agents) including training with some kind of melee weapon and some kind of ranged weapon. (The Null does get to pick what kind of weapons though, based on their preference and natural talents.) C.O.A.S.T. does not otherwise have uniform skill requirements for their agents, though they do expect every agent to be useful in field operations and not drag everyone else down; an agent candidate may be forced to continue taking training courses until their superiors deem them ready, depending on the candidate's class.

• Appearance: What does your character look like? Various missions will require you to go incognito in various ways, but otherwise what does your character default to wearing?

• Items: What kind of things that aren't cosmetic does your character take with them on missions by default? Enchanted trinkets and anti-Bump weapons (usually melee weapons coated in silver, ranged weapons loaded with salts, that kind of thing) are supplied by C.O.A.S.T. when they think they will be necessary, so your character does not necessarily need to have any by default.

• Personality: What is your character like, and how do they generally behave? In-universe you are being assigned to a team, so keep that in mind if you were thinking of making a lone wolf/doesn't play nice with others type. C.O.A.S.T. also wouldn't send a total coward out on field assignments, probably.

• Back story: How did your character find out about what's special about them? What's happened in your character's life that's led to them becoming a part of C.O.A.S.T.?

• Other: Anything you feel the need to mention that wouldn't fit in any of the above categories.

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Accepted characters

• Martin Gutierrez, 33 year old Herald of One, played by All Hail Thrall.
• Zoya Intigo, 23 year old Herald of One, played by sci300768.
• Kat Munroe, 27 year old Spirit Medium, played by Deis The Alcano.
• Lenard Cordon, 25 year old Herald of One, played by Greydoom.
• Noah Rodriguez, 27 year old Herald of One, played by Omega-Z.

Also, the not-quite-GMPCs; I say "not quite" because these are not intended to permanently be part of your team. These are agents working in other teams of C.O.A.S.T. that may be assigned to your team for a mission if command feels it necessary. (Or out of character, if I think you simply couldn't win without a certain class, need some extra manpower, and/or for story reasons.)

Edited by FirockFinion on Nov 1st 2021 at 8:10:41 AM

You are reading this.

I'm working on a Herald of One character right now. An agent with a chupacabras as a dog that almost works as a supernatural K-9 unit.

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

• Name: Martin Gutierrez
• Age and gender: 33, male

• Class: Herald of One
  • Martin is accompanied by Diego, a chupacabras. A chupacabras is a Bump that resembles a large monstrous dog or hyena, about 4 feet at the shoulder, with leathery, almost wrinkly brown skin, long yet powerful legs that end in clawed feet, a long, spindly tail, and a humped back with spikes running down the creature's back. It has a stocky, muscular face with small red eyes, a short muzzle, and long, sharp, almost vampiric looking teeth. It has the ability to shapeshift into a regular dog, resembling an unusually large Mexican Hairless dog. Under normal circumstances, chupacabras are aggressive and dangerous Bumps that use their dog form to sneak into livestock pens in the middle of the night, transform to kill livestock, and drink them dry of blood before skulking away into the night. Diego has been tamed by Agent Gutierrez from a puppy, so Diego trusts Gutierrez deeply. However, he was still aggressive and untrusting towards other humans at first. Part of Agent Gutierrez's COAST training helped Diego to behave himself around people, and to use his sharp sense of smell for tracking and locating purposes, as well as to hone his aggressive instincts towards other Bumps, turning Diego into a sort of COAST K-9 unit. The smell of fresh blood awakens Diego's chupacabras instincts, however, making him more difficult to control in such situations, though it can be done.

• Skills: Martin was already a decent shot before he joined COAST, but after joining, he took courses in self-defense and marksmanship to hone his already existing skills. He is now highly proficient in the use of pistols and shotguns, as well as knives for self-defense and for killing Bumps. In addition, he worked with COAST to train himself and Diego to work as a team, to control Diego and help him to understand commands for use in K-9 work. Diego, meanwhile, was trained to hunt and track, to notify his master about unusual smells or senses, and to attack, but only when commanded (and to heel when commanded to stop). He was also trained to transform back and forth when commanded, usually for the purposes of maintaining a low profile.

• Appearance: Agent Gutierrez is somewhat tall with a thin but toned figure. He has brown eyes and generally keeps his black hair slicked back, and has light stubble on the lower half of his face. His face is angular with a thin nose. He has tanned skin from both his Hispanic heritage and being out in the sun. When not having to dress for the occasion, he often wears outfits that help him to move and breathe more easily outdoors: denim jeans and cotton shirts, with leather boots or shoes.

• Items: Along with the typical COAST-issue arms and equipment, Agent Gutierrez carries around meaty treats for Diego. He feeds Diego when the chupacabras gets uppity or as part of his training. In addition, he keeps Diego on a leash/harness that is specially designed by COAST to maintain its cohesion even when Diego shapeshifts into his true chupacabras form.

• Personality: Martin values hard work and determination, virtues that helped him well taking care of the ranch and even more help him as a COAST agent. He cares deeply about animals, hence his taking pity on the chupacabras puppy that became Diego. He is brave in protecting those he cares about, such as his family, his fellow agents, and even Diego (though Diego is usually the one protecting him). He takes great pride in his position as a COAST agent, though he does often worry about the state of his ranch while he is away on missions.

• Back story:
  • Martin grew up on a small ranch in the rocky deserts and plains near El Paso, Texas. His family raised chickens, pigs, and goats. Oldest of three children, Martin often took responsibility for helping his parents maintain the ranch, and looked after his brother Leo and his sister Ana. He took over ownership of the family ranch when he was 30. A few years later, Martin found one of his chickens dead, drained of blood. This recurred for a few days. Staking out in the night, Martin was horrified to discover what seemed like a large dog breaking into the chicken coop and stalking the chickens. It grabbed a chicken, and began to leave the ranch. Grabbing his shotgun, Martin bravely confronted the creature, driving it back to its lair at the base of a rocky ridge near the ranch. The dog was in actuality a chupacabras, and it attacked him in defense of its lair though a few well-placed shots took the creature down. As he was about to exit the cave and report his find, he was interrupted by a small noise. Looking down, he noticed a small puppy of the creature had begun to follow him. The chupacabras was a mother, hunting for its puppies, only one of which was left. Taking pity on it, he led it back home, hoping that he could raise it to be less aggressive.
  • He named the puppy Diego, and he took the animal in as a family pet. Though his parents and siblings were confused and concerned initially, they soon took a hand in raising Diego along with the other animals, starting to curb his vampiric tendencies by regularly feeding him fresh meat from the ranch. It soon grew large after growing out of being a puppy and he put Diego to work as a guard dog for the animals. Soon, his "strange dog" caught the attention of BROOM, who sent a COAST team to investigate. The agent heading the team explained Diego's nature to Martin, and was ready to memory-wipe the family and take the chupacabras into custody, but after seeing how loyal Diego was to Martin and the family, and noticing how well Martin had begun to acclimate it, instead offered Martin and Diego a place in the organization. COAST helped train Martin and Diego for field work, as well as training Diego to behave around humans and hone his instincts towards the Bumps.

• Other: Not sure what to put here yet. Any questions?

Edited by AllHailThrall on Sep 19th 2021 at 8:08:17 AM

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

• Name: Zoya Intigo
• Age and gender: Female, 23

• Class: Herold of One
  • Name of Bump: Flickering Spider/Spider (nickname). A female by the way.

Spider is a bump that is an unusual variant of an onryo (vengeful spirit) that has lingered long after her revenge has been achieved. She is unable to truly reach peace (and is stuck in this form) and has no quarrels about attacking and killing other bumps. She is intelligent and by bump standards, a weirdo for working with humans. Her ability seems laughable vs other bumps, but her brains make up for it along with her willingness to use weapons/other tools. Has communicated with Zoya/others before, but only when she wants to. When not active, she turns into/acts like Zoya's shadow. In this state, she can't harm others, nor can others harm her in return. Though other bumps will vaguely detect her presence, this is mainly to hide herself from non-bumps. Can't be detected but also can't communicate without giving herself away. Is able to fly in her active state and being a spirit can go though solid objects. Though she can grab things in the physical plane which lets her do a lot of things. And sometimes annoy Zoya. Her physical strength is comparable to that of a fit human, but higher speed and reflexes to keep up with her own ability. She is a hardy spirit, so is able to take more damage vs other bumps as a result. Can shoot silk from all 12 of her limbs as well. The silk is tough and exists in the physical plane, being unable to affect bumps directly that don't exist in the physical plane.

Spider's ability is to change the speed of anything she touches. Including Zoya. Any contact with Spider can result in speed changes. Faster OR slower, but SURVIVING the fast speed collision is not always ensured unless said speed is changed fast enough... This does not affect bumps very much with direct contact effect wise. But if attached to a speeding object... well that WILL do something in the right cases. Basically a simple thing on paper, but powerful with creative usage. The biggest issue is friendly fire. Speeding items will harm allies as well...

The disadvantage to her brains is that she will act independently of what Zoya/others want at times. Zoya has gotten used to this by now...

Visually she has a female humanoid look body wise at 6 feet tall not including spider legs. Her skin color is dusty gray. Her face has 8 spider eyes that replace where human eyes would go (4 on each side of her face). The eyes stack vertically on both sides and have red irises with black sclera. She has a small human nose and her mouth has spider fangs and sharp teeth. Attached to her middle back are 8 black spider legs that can be folded back (length wise, if fully stretched out, total spider leg span is 1.5x total full arm span, hence her name. Also, the tips of the spider legs are sharp enough to double as stabbing weapons. Her hands look like normal human hands except for having black nails and said nails are retractable short and sharp claws. Her feet share the same traits as her hands. She wears a black vest with the middle back exposed for her spider legs, and black pants. Over this, she wears a black hooded cloak (Zoya gave it to her so she could blend in!) to hide her spider legs. That and she's alarmingly good at angering other bumps when she actively tries to. To Zoya's dismay. End result: Zoya is VERY good at running away from angry bumps and in general. While cursing out Spider along the way, again.

Also she hunts for prey via making traps with silk if Zoya does not give her any. Fortunely, she will accept deer and other animals for food. In a pinch, raw meat from the store will suffice as well (Spider prefers whole prey though, organs and all). Zoya is off the menu though (and humans in general, so this is why raw meat from the store is ok but not prefered)!

• Skills:

Has training on how to use firearms along with close quarters combat and hand to hand combat. Improvised weapons are something she's good at using, and that has included holy items/anti bump things! Can run for a very long time due to having to outrun bumps growing up (Blame Spider for that! She does not always get along with her own kind). Is able to stay calm in high pressure situations. Her knowledge on bumps allows her to identify bumps in general, though she is not specialized to deal with any one bump type. It's more overall knowledge gained out of necessity (Again, spider). Including C.O.A.S.T training, she knows when to tactically retreat from bumps and how to ANGER them (via Spider again).

Also an experienced hunter due to having to get prey for Spider. Having a hungry bump is VERY effective motivation to bring back a kill...

• Appearance:

Has short black hair in a boyish haircut that does not get in the way. Her eyes are brown in color and she is 5'8" (5 feet 8 inches tall).

Wears a black suit with extra pockets (white long sleeved shirt under the jacket part) Said suit is made to be practical for secret agents. Also wears a belt that holds various utility items. Over this she wears a trench coat when she needs the extra protection against the weather. Her shoes are combat boots.

• Items:

Default C.O.A.S.T items, and wears a holy cross necklace made of blessed silver (Noticeably the cross itself is always in some sorta cover when not in use due to Spider's presence). She has 2 (normal) pistols with ammo on her belt and 2 (normal) knives (why should be obvious). And a mundane first aid kit. Other bigger tools will depend on the case she's taking on and other factors, as those are harder to hide sometimes.

• Personality:

Zoya is someone who is in charge and prepared. Due to dealing with Spider for so long, she knows the supernatural exists, As well as being financially literate, she is always planning. Including backup plans for her backup. Regards Spider as a permanent partner and actively works with her in regards to teamwork.

• Back story:

She grew up normally for the most part in a rich family, except for having Spider following her around. Ever since she was 5, Spider has been with her at all times. Why? The alternative was letting the bump go untracked. As a result, she grew up believing that bumps existed as well as hearing stories regarding them from her family and friends. Between being haunted by Spider and her belief that bumps exist, she really did not have a normal social life. Fortunely, she IS however well read on bumps and myths in general due to books being the next best thing to a normal social life. And all of the time she spent running away from other bumps due to Spider (directly and indirectly) has given her impressive stamina and overall fitness. She took to wearing a holy cross 24/7 due to Spider. And along with it, hearing Spider talk about the many many MANY bumps that seem to be out to hate her in the past has only added to Zoya's knowledge of bumps. That's not counting the ones Spider has angered. That's an alarmingly number for Zoya's taste.

As for Spider? She was found in a graveyard after Zoya (aged: 5) got lost exploring one. Spider for some reason decided to follow Zoya and aid her rather than harm. Her family after consulting a lot of help decided to let Spider stay with Zoya since they were not sure if letting her loose would cause worse consequences. Zoya did a great job hiding Spider until she was 21, when Spider beat another bump up to protect her human. In front of several witnesses (aka C.O.A.S.T). It was one of Spider's dumbest moves by her own admission. Said Bump was trying to kill Zoya. C.O.A.S.T found out, and after seeing how Spider behaved along with her loyalty to Zoya saw how useful that was. So they hired Zoya!

• Other:

"Spider I already fed you cheap steaks. You know I can't find any whole prey items to feed you in a store! Just tell me when you are hungry. Again."

Edited by sci300768 on Oct 12th 2021 at 7:38:42 AM

I have no idea what to put here, oh well!

Oh shoot! I completely forgot something important in the character sheets I need to edit in: Skills. That is, skills your character has that aren't related to their class. It'll go between class and appearance.

Also, I have almost no time here tonight so it'll just be this one post from me and some editing of the first post; I probably won't be responding again until a similar time tomorrow night.

@All Hail Thrall: Your sheet looks fine aside from the missing skills, (which is my fault) so once you get those in Martin will probably be accepted. The C.O.A.S.T. location they're going to would probably start keeping some chicken blood refrigerated and ready for Diego, heh.

@sci300768: A character that could force an incorporeal Bump into being corporeal just by touching it would trivialize a whole number of the encounters I'm planning, to the point of basically invalidating them completely; the same would ultimately still apply to an ability to make normal corporeal things able to interact with incorporeal bumps as if they weren't also just by touch. So, sorry but that whole ability suite of Spider and "plane switching" is definitely denied.

Your sheet does remind though that I should add in a bit on the Bumps explanation in regards to "holy symbols".

You are reading this.

I edited in a skills section for Martin.

I can still hail the Horde even though the company has shamed us. Strength and Honor even if Blizzard has neither.

Let's see where this goes

• Name: Kat Munroe

• Age and gender: 27, female

• Class: Spirit Medium

• Skills: As a physicist she has a good understanding of how the world works, as well as excelling in math and even chemistry. And she still keeps in contact with her old colleagues, explaining away her C.O.A.S.T. job as some internship.

• Appearance: Like so◊. She's of average height, with light blonde hair and a headband. Wears a black sweater and white shirt alongside a long black skirt and boots. She also has some prominent bags under her eyes.

• Items: She carries eyedrops with her since her abilities irritate her eyes and can make them bleed.

• Personality: Kat was always an unassuming person, preferring not to stand out much from her peers. With the revelations of her abilities however, she has become more withdrawn, half because they make her feel inhuman and half to keep them in check. She's analytical and hard-working. And while certainly smart, her constant looking over her shoulder (sometimes both literally and metaphorically) can make her seem "not all there" to most people.

• Backstory: On April 10th 2019, humanity got its first actual look at a black hole. Katherine was one of billions who saw the news unfold and while she was particularly thrilled because the discovery coincided with her major, she went on with her life. Or tried to, anyway. That picture unraveled something in her mind and soon poor Kat found herself seeing patterns in everything, from her cat, to friends and family, and even the food she ate. Anyone she looked at had strange orange glyphs floating around them. The inescapability of this phenomenon made her obsessed to explain it any way she could. While naturally a bit of a loner, her loved ones got worried after she stopped all contact with the outside world, barricading herself at home to explain the mystery of what had happened to her. By the time authorities could get through to her she was found in the middle of a mental breakdown where she covered her walls in nonsensical equations, and was promptly taken to custody by B.R.O.O.M., who deemed her a medium. Years after that, she's now much more stable and working to exert greater control of her power while helping protect people from Bumps.

• Other: Her abilities manifest as her eyes glowing orange.

@All Hail Thrall: Excellent, Martin Gutierrez is accepted.

@Deis The Alcano: Ooh, I don't know why the idea of letting people customize the way a Medium's powers manifest didn't occur to me before. That is an excellent idea; I'll do some editing of the OP for that soon. I'm picturing that when she does the emotion manipulation she has to "edit" the glyphs she sees around people/things.

Kat Munroe is accepted.

You are reading this.

That's exactly what I had in mind.

• Name: Gene Sheppard

• Age and gender: 32, male

• Class: Time Medium

• Skills: Gene has a very keen mind. His strengths rest more in reading the enemies. Analyzing their weaknesses and strengths, he keeps a keen eye on any threats the others will face. He is known to do research on everything before hand on where the group is going or what they’re facing, so they can all be on the know about everything. On top of this, aside from his medium skills, he is also quite an effective watchman with heightened senses, sensing whatever or whoever is nearby, being able to feel, hear and see anything from quite a good distance. And his Medium skills aid him there. He also has some outdoor survival skills, being able to hunt or fish for food and can even make some makeshift shelter should he or his allies need such. And while he’s not the most proficient with firearms, he is more than handy with melee weapons, such as knives and can easily use his fists if he needs to. And given his size, it’s best not to get too close to him in a fight.

• Appearance: An African-American man, standing 6’2 and 250 lbs, having something of a babyface. His attire consists of a navy blue golf hat, a black polo shirt, khakis and black shoes, while wearing a brown longcoat with a backpack he lugs around.

• Items: In addition to his hunting knife he carries, he also carries a laptop with him. Something that aids him in research of what his group is about to face. He also has a journal and a pen handy to take note in and to have him or others study before hand. He also has a few rations he carries for him or others to eat if they get hungry, being a man of survival.

• Personality: Gene is something of a soft-spoken person. Tending to be calm, even when things around him go badly. He knows he needs to keep cool to stay alive. In addition, he’s quite observant of anything going on around him. He is also something of a techie, frequenting his laptop, with his journal at hand, learning about the situations he and the group are headed into and as such, is willing to give out any information whenever they all need it.

• Back story: Gene was raised in Dallas, TX, where during his childhood, he became something of a techie, often making use of computers and the interest even led him to getting a job at a coding company. But somewhere down the line, the company ended up going bankrupt, leading him out of a job. And struggling to find one, he eventually ended up homeless for a time being. Then one day, he manage to hitch a bus ride to take him to a certain part of town and during the ride, he had this premonition where the bus was about to lose control and plow off the highway bridge and fall a great distance, which would have killed nearly everyone aboard. And just when the bus started headed off, Gene quickly took control of the bus. While people there are first thought he was some kind of maniac, he guided them all to safety, and it was later found out the bus had some kind of internal problems that would have let the others to die had he not had the premonition on time. Gene became lauded as something of a small-time hero, being rewarded and getting him monetary gain to help him get back on track. And shortly after, he started having more future premonitions, which he used to help himself or others. And it was the abilities that got the attention of C.O.A.S.T, which brought him on and where he would use his premonitions to aid his allies in their missions.

• Other: Not sure what else to add.

@Matthew L Mayfield: Well, you forgot the part of describing how he perceives his ability, but it seems understandable regardless. Hopefully no more recreations of Speed in his future.

Gene Sheppard is accepted.

You are reading this.

My apologies for going a bit dark on this; my life was continuously flip flopping between being busy and being generally distracting, and I forgot a bit about the game since there were no more posts yet. Anyway, as an update, I would prefer to wait for at least one or two more signups before starting, but I'll see about planning to potentially start sometime next week even if there are no more signups by then.

In the meantime, I have added the first of my "not quite GMPCs", recurring characters that could be accompanying you guys on some of your missions, but not on all of them, as they are not meant to be permanent members of your team. I'm putting them in the first post below the accepted characters, each with their own folder to save space.

You are reading this.

I was working on a witch character. But I might change the class.

They can't for the life of them understand why nobody liked being ruled by a group of manic depressive demigods - 4chan

@thestonedog78: You don't have to change the class if you don't want to. As mentioned, the GMPCs are not meant to be permanent team members and are more of a contingency plan than anything; so if there is a witch/warlock character, (and the player doesn't drop out/stop posting) then Tom wouldn't be going along on many missions. Plus he's only the first; I'm planning four total, one of each main class type.

Alternatively, if you were only making a witch/warlock out of a sense of obligation, and you would actually more enjoy playing a different class, then by all means pick whatever you would like to play.

You are reading this.

Also, one more post before I leave for now, just to mention that I have added the second of the not quite GMPCs.

You are reading this.

So when I previously said that I was intending to start up the game this week, I did not know then that my work schedule was going to be picking back up this week with more work. So I want to be upfront with the possibility that I may not actually be able to start this RP this week after all, but I will still try to. I cannot presently give a good estimate on what day this week that might be.

Also, I have added the third not-quite-DMPC.

Edited by FirockFinion on Oct 5th 2021 at 2:00:23 AM

You are reading this.

Alright, the last of the not quite DMPCs for now has been edited into the first post. I actually had most of it written up last night, and just added the finishing touches tonight. Unfortunately I don't really have any more time to be around tonight so I can't start up the game tonight. I should be able to work on it tomorrow night, though not until late so it may be more like Sunday morning depending on your time zone.

You are reading this.

Well, work was a big pain today and I was later getting home and getting started than I wanted to be, but I have done it, and the game is now officially started! Here are links to the main thread and the discussion thread.

The game is still open to new signups and will be for the foreseeable future. The story is set up in a way that new additions can be easily worked in.

You are reading this.

Edited my post. Changed the ability to something less broken.

I have no idea what to put here, oh well!

@sci300768: Hmm, feels a bit like a comic book superhero ability to me, but it should no longer trivialize a lot of encounters, and it fits well enough. However, there is a big problem remaining that would keep Zoya from being accepted as a C.O.A.S.T. agent in-universe, and would have Spider treated like a hostile Bump instead of a Herald's Bump.

That's exactly the kind of red flag security risk that B.R.O.O.M. absolutely would not tolerate. I went over this in the setting and tone both here and in the brainstorming thread; they're not the SCP Foundation, and they don't have, "acceptable casualties". If Spider couldn't have that behavior trained out in their mandatory C.O.A.S.T. training, the two of them would never be allowed on field missions, ever.

If that was on your sheet before, I must've missed it, sorry.

As long as I'm addressing your sheet though, there is one other (albeit minor) thing I guess I should mention. When Spider is hiding in Zoya's shadow, her being imperceptible to normal senses is fine, but Spirit Mediums and Bumps with supernatural senses would still be able to tell that she's there. (They probably wouldn't be able to tell exactly what she is until she comes out of the shadow though.)

Edited by FirockFinion on Oct 12th 2021 at 1:35:41 AM

You are reading this.

Edited and yea that makes sense. The shadow form is more for ZOYA to blend in with normal people.

I have no idea what to put here, oh well!

@sci300768: Alright then. With that cleared up, Zoya Intigo is accepted. Arachnophobes beware.

I dunno if you want to say she was in the briefing room the whole time unnoticed or just showed up late; up to you, though the former would probably be a little easier to roll with.

Edited by FirockFinion on Oct 12th 2021 at 8:36:40 AM

You are reading this.

Are you still accepting submissions?

• Name: Lenard Cordon
• Age and gender: 25 y/o Male (born on August 17th, 1996 in Samson, California)

• Class: Herald of One (Spirit of the Blades of the Hunstsman)
• Spirit of the Blades: A semi-aware, vague spirit of The Hunt that inahbits a pair of one foot (30 cm) long knives. Said knives are made of some kind of mysterious enchanted wood that exceeds modern steel in its durability and sharpness. If lost or destroyed, the blades find their way back into their bearer (currently Cordon's) possession in one piece at the end of each day when the sun sets. They can cut up Bumps, provided they exist in physical space, but are incapable of injuring mundane beings.

• Skills:
• Edged Weapons Expert Has trained extensively with knives, axes, swords, and the like.

• Amateur Thief Experience: Has several years of experience commiting small crimes like stealing money and food off of people and from stores

• Investigation Skillset: He has a good head on his shoulders, tends to trust his gut, and has a couple years of experience in the field of amateur detective work.

• Top-Of-The-Line Physical Condition: Keeps himself fit and combat-ready, given how he himself doesn't possess any magic beyond The Blades, he has to rely on his own physical and mental acuity to get by in this line of work.

• Portrait Drawing Profiency: He has a passion for sketching and drawing people, and that, combined with a strong memory for faces, comes in handy in his line of work.

• Quick Healer: Cordon just generally tends to bounce back from injuries quickly. Nothing superhuman, he's just got a knack for recovering from injuries.

• Appearance: Dark brownish hair, tan skin, bright yellow-brown eyes. Tall, at 6 foot 1 inches, and strongly built. Dresses professionally and neatly.

• Items:

• Old Handkerchief: Given to him by his father. A thick red square of cloth, holding a lot of sentimental value. Uses it to clean his knives.

• Pocketbook: A mysterious little stained and beaten up pocketbook filled with esoteric commandments and tips from Herne the Hunter.

• Personality: Blunt and direct, almost compulsively honest. Likes to sit back when off the job and in lower-stakes situations, but can get unnecessarily aggressive and insubordinate when on a 'hunt' after a Bump. The Jury's out on how much of that is his own bad impulse control and how much of that is Herne's influence.

• Back story: Lenold Cordon lived a mostly normal life, had a loving mother and father who eventually drifted apart when he was a middle schooler, prompting him to act out; made a few close friends throughout High School and two years of College, graduated with an Associates in Arts with an interest in drawing portraits for a living (didn't think that one through). With few connections, an ailing father, and little money in the bank, he took up criminal activities to get by, mostly pickpocketing and shoplifting. He drifted by for the better part of a year before being caught in the crossfire of a hit on a nasty Bump by C.O.A.S.T.

He took a bullet in the shoulder, and as he was drifting off into a fugue state, he stumbled into a nearby alley where he encountered a grumbling old homeless man with a white beard that fell down to his waist, all wrapped up in what looked like dirty camo and rusty weapons. The old man said his name was Herne, that he was a Huntsman of "the Old Stock", and offered Cordon a musty old pocketbook, which the bleeding man took, confused. He woke up in the alley on his back to the sound of sirens, his wound healed over, with a faint pink scar to show for it, and a fair of knives strapped to either side of his belt.

He examined the pocketbook, which enigmatically explained that he was a Huntsman now, and he had a job to do: "Hunt the Beasts of Shadow, that the world might be Made Free by Foul Blood Shed."

• Other:

Field Experience: 3 years, 5 months (August 2016-January 2020) solo; then then 8 months (February 2020-September 2021) working under C.O.A.S.T. professionally

Edited by Greydoom on Oct 28th 2021 at 12:35:40 PM

@Greydoom: Your sheet is a bit confusing to me, or is even missing a rather major component. You say he's a Herald Of One and your sheet seemingly states that his friendly Bump is, "Herne the Hunstsman", but Herne isn't included in the sheet at all? In fact actually reading it it seems more like his friendly "Bump" is in actuality the two blades, what with their supernatural ability to return to him. That's not quite in the spirit of the class, but I suppose it's not unacceptable; however if that's the case the blades should be described in the bullet point under his class, not under his items.

You are reading this.