Ashes of the Motor City 

A chronicle-setting for ​Princess: The Hopeful, Second Edition

By TheKingsRaven, Super_Dave, and numerous other Detroiters

Welcome to the killing fields (You’ll try)

Where thorns infest the ground that pain yields
Where the bones of triumph show (You’ll fail)
The beast they feed on the dying flesh of old
But the sun on this land has set (You won’t)
The day of redemption is close at hand
Roll up the sleeves with bended knees (Kill me)
This plain will see life again

This one's for the warriors

The torch and spade warriors

― Flatfoot 56, “​Warriors​”

 Once upon a time, there was a city.
It began as a fortress in the wilderness, like many others, fought over by kings and queens in far away
lands, but never truly valued. It grew, suffered fire, disease, and times of plenty. It could have been like
any other city in the world- but for one thing it possessed and offered in abundance.
First came the visionaries, the Titans of Industry. Men with dreams of grandeur and wealth in their
eyes. They saw a city with all that they needed. Iron and copper for their forges. Timber and leather
for their artisans. Waterways upon which their goods could move across the world. The only thing
they lacked were people to work their factories. No matter how greedy or selfish at heart they were, the
Titans knew they would have to share their wealth to power the engines of industry - a sacrifice made
gladly, for it was in their own interest.
And so the Titans spread the word to all corners of the world: Come to this city.
Come and be wealthy. Come and be safe. Come and be free.
Come, and by your own hands, you may make your dreams a reality.
From the East they came, the children of peasants, with stout arms and willing hands, crossing the
frozen sea and braving the scorn of “true Americans” to come to the Forge of Tomorrow, and build a
life for themselves and their children which held only the promise of comfort and modest wealth. And
that promise was enough. There was no greed in their hearts, only a wish to build a foundation for their
children, and their grandchildren, to live in safety and plenty, away from warring kings and queens.
From the West they came, across the Sunset Sea, their homes riven by war and destruction, whether
from the sands of the deserts, the jungles of the south, or the conflicts of old empires collapsing, all were
able to find safety and community. No longer would the bombs fall in the night, no longer would they
fear the coming of the soldier.
From the South they came. Their fathers and grandfathers had been chattel, slaves, property in the
eyes of their masters. And though they were now free by law, they were free only by law. But the city’s
forges asked for any man’s hands - even theirs. And so they looked to the Forge of Tomorrow with hope
in their hearts. They came by hundreds. By thousands. By tens of thousands. Every horse cart, every
train car, every automobile which could carry them was filled with all they had. For if a man was willing
to overcome prejudice, where else but the Forge of Tomorrow could a man forge the warm home, the
dignity, and the community that a man needs to be truly free?
To all these people, the Forge of Tomorrow promised hope, the chance to build a better future by
one’s own hands.
And that city’s name is Detroit.
Detroit became a beacon, shining in the darkness of a world that would soon descend into madness
and war, its light cast by the great forges which never stopped making, shaping, building, and selling the
wonders of tomorrow. It was here that blue collar union bosses were courted by Presidents, and it was
here that The King first proclaimed “I have a dream.” Its place in history was secured by the burning
light of Hope it cast at all hours.
But time stands still for nothing. Not even a city.
The Titans of Industry passed on. Their successors, blinded by their greed and hubris, cracked the
foundations of the city. They divided worker and boss, city and suburb, black and white. Darkness
festered in those cracks, it echoed every accusation - justified or prejudiced - dividing Detroit further
apart every day. Monsters crawled through the fractures to prey on the surface, whispering poison into
the ears of the powerful and devouring the weak in dark alleyways. With every blow factories and families
fled for fairer fields.
Once upon a time there was a city. Its people held in the clutches of a great Darkness, but that city
remembers it once shone with a noble Light, and dreams it can do so once again.
Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus.

Table of Contents
Chapter 0: Introduction: Rust and Ruin
The purpose of this book, as well as themes and moods; new and modified rules; and recommended
reading, music, and films.

2
Chapter 1: Bones of the City
The history of Detroit, from its days as a frontier outpost to an industrial megalopolis, and the long
decline which followed, right up to the present day.

Chapter 2: Lay of the Land

Geography, landmarks, and key locations of Detroit, Michigan and its environs (including Windsor,
Ontario).

Chapter 3: Pillars of the Community

Descriptions of the various factions (Radiant, mortal, and otherwise) which fight for Detroit, and the
territories they claim for their own.

Chapter 4: Nobles and Knaves

Write ups for important characters and generic NPCs, and plot hooks.

3
 Introduction: Rust
and Ruin
Of Detroit’s many barriers to self-improvement, the lock that old fears and traditions�good and bad�have
on the collective mind-set could well be the most significant, and potentially the most lethal. As is the
delusion that what once was can be again. Because it cannot. Detroit’s industrial past will never roar
back to life; the national and global economies have undergone too drastic a transformation for it to be
possible.
—Scott Martelle, Detroit: A Biography, Chapter 18: “When the Jobs Go Away”

Once it was the wealthiest city per capita in the
United States, and one of the largest by both square
mileage and population. Its name was spoken as
the city of tomorrow, where industry and integrity
joined together to make modernity. It was a place
spoken of as a promised land, where the immigrant,
the downtrodden, the illiterate- all could come,
work hard, and actually have a shot at a prosperous
life with modern comforts and wealth unheard of by
one’s parents. Today Detroit rattles in the shell of
its former greatness; its name is a joke, slang for a
hell-on-earth pit of despair and crime.

4
 The Motor City now contains enough the people and leave the Darkspawn to fight each
uninhabited land to more than equal the entire other over empty buildings. But the Radiant were
area of the city of Boston, and barely half of never ones for cold pragmatism. The Nobility
its streetlights are operational. More than two- of Detroit believe in their city and they love
thirds of its homicides go unsolved and 9-1-1 it more than ever because it needs their love
callers frequently wait thirty minutes for police more than ever. Princesses from all over the
or firefighters to arrive, if they show up at all. country flock to Detroit, for they know how badly
The city’s arson-gutted remains contain more than they’re needed; they arrive determined to show that
100,000 abandoned homes and empty lots. An even in the darkest hour, victory can come from
average of fourteen acts of arson are committed in uncompromised Light.
Detroit each day, and firefighters lack basic safety
equipment to combat these blazes. Paramedics
routinely arrive on-scene with nothing more than
a defibrillator and a dirty blanket because the city
can’t even afford first aid kits. Corruption is deeply Theme: The Sins of
entrenched at every level, and local government is
rife with bribes, incompetence, crooked books, and our Fathers
juicy no-bid contracts for work that may or may
not actually get done. Even the school system has
Detroit rose to prominence on the backs of the
rotted- computers donated by wealthy corporations
American worker, but even in its heyday it was
to the impoverished district are quickly snatched
a city divided. Wealthy whites rode streetcars
up and sold on internet auction sites, student
as beautiful as those in San Francisco to work
enrollment is inflated by the school board to acquire
and lived in townhomes as luxurious as those in
more Federal dollars to line the board’s pockets,
Boston or New York, while their black neighbours
historic schools are closed down without notice
were forced to walk the streets, stuck living in
and their supplies left on the shelves, and all the
the ghettos where they would be fortunate to get
while the kids are left to suffer while the school
work bussing tables or, God willing, on the floor
board dithers and collects a paycheck. For a city
of a factory. There might not have been water
which prided itself on being the birthplace of the
cannons, attack dogs, or lynchings but racism was
middle class, the very embodiment of the American
as prevalent as in the American South. Even the
Dream, the last five decades have been a series of
well-to-do African American communities who’d
rude awakenings from that dream.
made it past the barriers and into the middle classes
That is the Detroit of our world.
were not spared the sting of oppression. When
You are not in that Detroit. This is a cockeyed
Detroit’s economy collapsed like a house of cards
distortion, a slanderous falsehood, the punchline
the whites had the means to flee to the suburbs
of a tasteless, cynical joke. This is the Detroit of
while the blacks were left behind with the ashes
the World of Darkness, where every cop is crooked,
of the city all around them, no money or industry
every abandoned home hides a dark secret, and the
with which to rebuild, and then blamed for all the
mere possibility of hope is a resource that’s worth
political corruption and crime that followed.
killing for.
For the longest time each side, each generation,
Great wheels have been set in motion, and none
was divided into their own narrative. You were a
know where they may take us.
Suburbanite who thought the blacks ran Detroit
“Welcome to Detroit, motherfucker.”
into the ground, or a Detroiter who blamed the
whites for packing up and running when the going
got tough. With the return of the Radiant, the
Theme: It Will Rise divide must be bridged to defeat the Darkness. But
even the Nobles, who carry the wisdom of past
From The Ashes lives unchained by prejudice, struggle to overcome
this segregation. Detroit marks every Princess. It
Modern-day Detroit is nothing more than the listens to her accent. It notices her social class. It
smoldering ashes of a once-great city. Its streets are even sees the color of her skin. And Detroit puts
Tainted and its leaders firmly in the pocket of the that Princess on a side no matter how hard she
Darkness. The citizens struggle just to remain as protests. The Radiant struggle to help Detroit rise
they are, even those who see and fight back against above the sins of the past but they must do so, for
the Darkness do so simply to survive another day. as a great man once said, “no one is free until we
The sensible thing to do would be to save are all free.”

5
 one of America’s largest communities of Middle-
Mood: Open Eastern people and a growing number of Latin
Americans.
Warfare
Darkspawn prowl through the abandoned buildings Climate
and urban prairie of a dying city. Civilian
Summers in Detroit can be surprisingly hot and
deaths are common, clashes between armed
humid for such a northerly city. Autumn colors in
bands of mortals and the Darkness are a
Detroit are renowned as some of the best in the
nightly occurrence. The work of decades
country. Winter is almost always a gloomy season,
of mismanagement, corruption, and municipal
with skies that are overcast for months and heavy
sabotage are complete. Even if a Grace were to
snowfall; the freezing, melting, and refreezing of
sit in the mayor’s office tomorrow, the city would
snowfall causes damage to sidewalks, roads, and
still be torn down by monsters’ claws. The only
buildings. Potholes during the winter can be large
way to save the city is to clean it out, street by
enough to cause structural damage to vehicles if not
street, Darkspawn by Darkspawn, Taint by Taint,
carefully avoided. Early spring is cold with lots of
and build something better atop the ashes of the
wetness and leftover slush, but gradually warms to
monsters. And so the Radiant walk the night and
a balmy temperature.
the day, their scepters blazing with the conviction
of a clear duty.
Economy
Mundane Detroit Detroit’s economy is a remnant of what it was in
its heyday, but slightly better than it was even
five or ten years ago. Most automaking jobs
In this section you will find facts and figures about
have been outsourced to the suburbs or overseas,
the city of Detroit. These statistics represent
and/or eliminated through automation and general
Detroit in the real world and should be adapted
belt-tightening; only one of the Big Three still
to make Detroit fit the darker world of Princess:
maintains a headquarters within the city. Jobs
the Hopeful.
are scarce, especially legal ones, and those that
When adapting Detroit we recommend
are available require either an advanced education
emphasising violence, corruption, poverty and
or personal connections- the sorts of things only
prejudice, both racial and otherwise. However
the wealthier suburbanites have. The top three
voluntary groups and professions that work directly
employers within the city limits are, in order, the
to build a future for Detroit such as teachers,
Detroit Medical Center Hospitals (11,500), the City
medical professionals, and clergymen should be
of Detroit (9,500), and Quicken Loans Mortgage
portrayed idealistically. Ashes of the Motor City
Company (9,100). Many Detroiters earn extra
is a story about fighting for Detroit’s future, it
income from unauthorized/illegal metal-salvage,
requires idealistic characters to be those fighters.
known as “scrapping”. Others resort to dealing
That said the Darkness’ servants are an intelligent
drugs or prostitution.
and devious force of evil, and will be sure to put
effort into corrupting such upstanding citizens, and
it has supernatural means of doing so. Government
Detroit has nine elected councilors who govern
Population alongside the mayor. However, when the
city declared bankruptcy in 2013 the Governor
Though once one of the most populous cities of Michigan appointed an Emergency Financial
in America, the number of residents has fallen Manager (or EFM) to take control of Detroit’s
since the turn of the millennium. Detroit is finances and ensure the city’s future economic
home to about 689,000 people, with 82% of its viability. Although Detroiters despised having
populace identifying as Black, and 10% as white. their elected leaders overruled by a state-appointed
Detroit’s unemployment rate is around 10% of the bureaucrat, there was no mechanism in place to
population. However, the greater Metro Detroit impeach or replace the EFM until the Bankruptcy
area is home to about 4 million people, of which court ruled the process complete. The EFM has
70% are white and 22% are black, and with an resigned and the city mayor had all their powers
unemployment rate around 5%. It’s also home to returned but the threat of a new EFM being

6
appointed by the Governor remains. Detroiters see from 700 in 1991.
the city council as doing the best they can with About 50 mailmen are attacked by wild dogs
what they have: a dying city, ageing infrastructure, within the city every year while on their routes.
no tax base, and no help coming from the suburbs Reported rapes stand at about 100 cases per
or Lansing to stave off the economic collapse. year- a crime that is definitely under-reported. The
Suburbanites have nothing but praise for the EFM city was embroiled in scandal in 2009 when 11,341
and contempt for what they see as a corrupt city untested rape kits were discovered in an evidence
council living in Grosse Pointes mansions, driving closet within a Detroit Police Department storage
Detroit to ruin while living off the taxpayers, warehouse. The oldest dated back to 1984. All
hoping for other Michigan cities to bail them out. were simply left there with justice for the victims
Regardless of where the truth lies, the argument is never pursued. It took years to test all of the DNA
an example of the continuing divide between the evidence and match them to known criminals, and
city and the suburbs. the process was only just finished in 2017.
Burglaries and car thefts create a black market
that feeds suburbanite customers as well as
Crime and Justice Detroiters. Thieves prowl the unprotected parking
lots around Wayne State University, looking for
American popular culture treats Detroit as nothing
laptop bags left in the back seats of cars- easy
better than a city given over completely to anarchy
pickings for smash and grab thefts that can be
and bloody crime. Real world Detroiters detest
pawned or sold online. Gangs have been known to
this association and it should be noted that the
stake out railroad crossings, waiting for cars to stop
crime statistics have been drastically improving
for the safety barricades before carjacking vehicles
since 2012. But it is regularly listed as one of the
and driving them to chop shops. Parts are then
most dangerous cities in America - which makes it
sold for scrap or as “used parts” in shady repair
doubly dangerous within the World of Darkness.
shops.
The following are statistics provided by the FBI as
Most of the city’s prostitutes cater to suburban
recently as 2015, and so should be inflated by the
Johns within old motel rooms and answer to Detroit
Storyteller to emphasize the dangers of the Motor
pimps. Michigan (and Detroit in particular) is
City within the World of Darkness.
recognized by the Federal Government as a hotbed
Murder numbers vary from year to year, but
of international human trafficking for prostitution.
recently the body count was at its lowest level in 40
Narcotics and drugs can be found in most
years - and was still 10 times the national average.
neighbourhoods, usually laced with dangerous
80% of homicides in Detroit involved the use of
substances if you need a hit on the cheap. Dealers
a firearm. It’s easy for dedicated killers- be they
make good money selling weed to suburban high
gangbangers, mafia men, Darkened, or Slashers-
schoolers. Hard drugs like cocaine and meth are
to get away with the crime if the police are never
pushed on Detroiters and suburbanites alike. Drug
called and the body is dumped someplace where
raids on a single grow op in an abandoned home
it won’t be found. Corpses have been discovered
can lead to hundreds of marijuana plants being
in overgrown fields picked at by wild dogs and
confiscated and destroyed.
coyotes, or down abandoned elevator shafts, frozen
Organized crime is found throughout the
and degraded from rain runoff and winter’s cold
Detroit area engaging in labor racketeering,
temperatures.
loansharking, and extortion. The FBI estimates
Police work is a dangerous career path with at
the most prominent gang, the Italian Detroit
least one officer dying in the line of duty every
Partnership, currently has around 50 “made men.”
year. 225 Detroit Police Officers have been killed
The open secret of where they really make their
since the Department’s foundation in 1878, 149
money is the suburbs. Many of the sanitation
of them by gunfire. In 2003 the Detroit Police
companies that haul trash are in the pockets of
Department was placed under federal oversight
the mafia, making money from their lucrative city
after allegations of excessive force, illegal arrests
contracts and using their companies for money
and improper detention, a judge ruled that the
laundering purposes. The suburbs turn a blind eye
DPD has sufficiently reformed in 2014, but in the
because these companies offer cutthroat prices and
world of darkness the department of justice might
do engage in efficient trash collection. It’s when the
not even have opened an investigation.
garbage starts to pile up and constituents complain
Physical assaults occur at roughly 5 times the
that the city mayor might make a call to his friends
national average. About 900 arson fires occur every
in Detroit’s FBI field office, as happened to one of
year, many of them on October 30th- Devil’s Night.
the larger companies in 2017.
In 2009, 119 fires were set on that one night- down

7
 The Detroit Detention Center is the city’s main
prison facility and opened in 2013. It has holding
space for 200 inmates. The nearest Federal Prison
is FCI Milan, 45 miles west of Detroit. It has
enough cells to hold 1,600 inmates.
Culture
The Detroit Institute of Arts houses an enormous
collection of priceless objets d’art, including
paintings by Monet and Picasso, artifacts of ancient
civilizations, and a sizable African art collection.
From jazz and Motown to rock, techno, and hip-
hop, Detroit’s music scene has always been vibrant,
even a little dangerous: its underground hip-hop
scene has given rise to such controversial figures
as Eminem, Kid Rock, and the Insane Clown
Posse. Detroit cuisine is considered the creme de
la creme of working class diner fare in America
(by Detroiters, at least), and is best experienced
in one of the dozens of small Coney Island diners
throughout the Metro area. This fast-food culture
is exemplified by the ubiquitous Coney Dog: a
single beef hot dog placed inside of a steamed
bun, topped with chili sauce, ground up hamburger
meat, then more chili sauce, diced onion, and liberal
amounts of mustard (never ketchup). Tourists try
to eat it with their hands.
modern country, classic rock, or hip-hop and rap.
Canadian Radio station broadcasts reach across
the Detroit river, using the international border
to get away with airing raunchier material than
the conservative American FCC would ever allow.
Detroit boasts four professional sports teams: the
Tigers (baseball), the Lions (football), the Pistons
(basketball), and the Red Wings (hockey).
Transportation
Privately owned vehicles provide most of Detroit’s
transportation needs, but rental cars and taxis are
also readily available. Public transport is notably
absent, as General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler
(“the Big Three”) wished to avoid the competition
in their home city. An aging fleet of 300 public
buses services the entire city, transporting one-
in-eight Detroiters daily. Uber and Lyft both
operate within city and suburban limits, competing
ferociously with Detroit’s cab drivers. Detroit has
begun to rediscover the bicycle, adding bike lanes to
many of its streets. A single 3.3 mile long light rail
commuter train, the QLINE, began operation in
2016, providing service from Campus Martius park
to Grand Boulevard street- about half the distance
it would need to affect any economic change outside
of Downtown Detroit.

The Michigan Accent

New and Modified
While the Southern Drawl and New Yorka’ accents
get pronounced in popular media, the people of rules
Detroit and Michigan have a pronounced accent all
their own. Generally speaking, if a word has more
than one syllable, the speaker will cut off a vowel Abandoned Structures
to shorten the word, usually (though not always)
The vast number of abandoned buildings in Detroit
found in the word’s center. “Frederick” becomes
(more than 70,000 of them) means that a place
“Fred’rick,” “can” becomes “c’n” (pronounced like
to hide is never far away, and that you can
“kin”), and “Elizabeth” becomes “‘Lizabeth” or
almost always find a building to suit your purposes.
“Liz’beth”. Academia and Big Three Executives
Whether you’re looking for somewhere to stage a
try to get out of this habit, but to everyone else it’s
drug drop, treat a friend’s wounds, dispose of a
an ingrained way of speaking.
body, or build a meth lab, you can probably find
the perfect place without too much effort or a dice
Media and Sports roll. Most are abandoned bungalows or businesses.
Some, like the Vanity Ballroom Building, are iconic
Although Detroit retains two major newspapers, historical structures fit to be a palace if they
The Detroit News (Conservative) and The Detroit were properly renovated. However, there is no
Free Press (Liberal), more than half of the urban guarantee that the structure will be conveniently
adult population is functionally illiterate. As located, structurally sound, or not already claimed
a result, most Detroiters get their news from by someone (or something) else. A Streetwise roll,
TV, mainly Fox 2 Detroit and Channel 7 Action or perhaps even an Occult roll, may be required to
News. Several talk radio stations broadcast check if a building is as empty as it seems, while a
local news and traffic alongside nationwide talk Science roll is advisable before doing anything that
programs. Most FM music stations broadcast will test a building’s structural integrity.

8
Crumbling (Environmental Tilt)
This building is old and neglected, and could come
down at any moment. Effect: By itself this Tilt
does little, even a crumbling building isn’t going
to collapse when someone knocks on the door.
However any Exceptional Success or Dramatic
Failure involving moving about or combat could
cause something to collapse. Causing the Tilt:
Time, neglect, and potent magic are the most
common causes of this Tilt. Ending the Tilt:
Only extensive renovations or potent magic can end
this Tilt.
Literacy
The Detroit Public Schools are some of the most
dysfunctional in the United States: only 65% of
Detroit high school students earn their diplomas,
and the majority of those who do are functionally
illiterate. Characters who grew up in Detroit may
take Illiterate as a Persistent Condition. Regardless
of background. Few of Detroit’s Nobility have
problems with the written word, with so many
literate past lives behind them most start to Crowd Management
remember their old aptitude for reading not too
long after regaining their power.
Money in Detroit
Jobs are scarce in the 313 (Detroit’s telephone
area code number), and jobs which are both
stable and legal are even scarcer: one-third of
Detroit’s populace lives below the poverty line.
To represent this division, the Resources merit
is governed by two separate mechanics, and the
division between them is as stark and cruel as
the divide between haves and have-nots. Even
Detroit has its millionaire enclaves, and Princesses
arriving from prosperous cities aren’t hurting for
money, and so the “Haves” use the Resources Merit
as normal. Meanwhile, the “Have-Nots” treat
all items as having an Availability of (its regular
Availability * 3) - Streetwise. For the Have-Nots,
grifting and knowing a guy aren’t specialist skills,
they’re the basics of survival. A Have-Not may also
opt to automatically succeed on any Socialize roll
to acquire Equipment (within reason) by taking the
Leveraged Condition. Social support networks are
a matter of life or death in Detroit’s ghettos, and if
you need something you’ll likely get it, but if you
have a little extra money stored under the mattress,
you can expect someone to come knocking at your
door.
Wildcraft on the Urban
Prairie
Approximately one-third of Detroit’s land has gone
unused and un-maintained for so long that it has
reverted from brownfield to “urban prairie”. These
open green spaces are home to a surprising variety
of wildlife, including raccoons, red-tailed hawks,
peregrine falcons, foxes, ducks, Canada geese,
squirrels, snakes, groundhogs, pheasants, rabbits,
white-tailed deer, coyotes, wild dogs, beavers, and
even the occasional bear. On the urban prairie,
players can substitute their dots in Survival for
dots in Streetwise in most dice pools, for actions
such as hiding or moving unseen, moving silently,
finding shelter, or hunting. Furthermore, urban
prairie counts as a natural setting for the purposes
of nature-dependent Charms, Invocations, etc.
New Merits
(••)
Prerequisite: Presence (•••)
The public nature of the battle between Detroit’s
champions and the Darkness means that mortals
are frequently exposed to the crossfire. Your
character is trained in managing the panicking
masses and getting them to safety. By spending
a Willpower you can give +3 dice to every non-
combatant NPCs in earshot on their next roll. They
can only use the bonus if their next roll is part of
an attempt to get to safety.
Disaster Coordination
(• - ••••)
Prerequisite: Wits •••, Presence •••
Your character is trained in coordinating groups of
professionals during disasters. When making an
Extended Action to perform Disaster Relief up to
(Dots in this Merit -1) Secondary Actors (who must
be nominated before rolling) add their successes
directly to the final result rather than the primary
actor’s dice pool.
Only one character may coordinate disaster
relief at a time, but a particularly large disaster
may require multiple teams, each with their own
leader.
9
Fire And Motion (•) New Conditions
Your character has been trained to shoot from a
moving vehicle and reduces all penalties for doing Cop-Killer (Persistent)
so by Drive. While common among professional
militaries, in Detroit these techniques are most You were responsible for the death of a
commonly practiced by the Hunters of United police officer, or incorrectly believed to be
Automobile Workers, Local 911. responsible; whether or not there were extenuating
circumstances is irrelevant. Police treat you as if
you had the Notoriety Condition and will actively
Instinctual Arsonist hunt you down and attempt to apprehend you,
even when off-duty (and perhaps even beyond the
(• - •••) bounds of legal apprehension).
You are instinctively gifted at starting fires, despite Resolution: You gain at least two dots in
your lack of formal knowledge on the subject. You the “New Identity” Merit and abandon your old
may roll Intelligence + Wits to start a fire instead identity, or you conclusively prove in a court of law
of the normal Intelligence + Science roll. You also that you were in no way responsible for the officer’s
add your dots in this merit as a bonus to your dice death. Moving to a new city may be sufficient to
pool, also increasing your maximum rolls by that remove this Condition, as long as your case was not
amount. very heavily publicized.
Beat: The police cause you a significant hardship
as a result of this Condition.
Turf (• - •••)
You’re a member of a street gang that controls some Debtor (Persistent)
territory, and on your streets your word is law. Like most Detroiters, you are up to your eyeballs
The size of your Turf depends in the dots in debt. Unfortunately, you went into debt with
invested. At one dot you have a single street or (or your debt was sold to) the kind of people
apartment building. At two dots it extends to a who don’t take “broke” for an answer. Creditors
small neighbourhood or a collection of buildings are constantly hounding you for payment, forcing
like “the projects”. At three dots you own an you to live off-the-grid or on the fringes of society
entire town or metropolitan district. Such large to avoid their notice. While you possess this
Turfs are rare and require a significant breakdown Condition, you cannot gain or possess any dots
in social order. It requires not just a failing of in Resources; you cannot legally own, rent, or
legitimate government, but also a reason why a purchase any form of shelter, or any vehicle
street gang hasn’t been muscled out or evolved into more expensive than a used bicycle; you cannot
an organized crime syndicate that creates at least purchase anything on credit; nor can you apply for
the illusion of normalcy to better attract money. most (legal) forms of employment. All of which,
While within your territory you add a single ironically, makes it extremely difficult for you to
automatic success to any Streetwise rolls and gain pay back your creditors.
8-again on Intimidation rolls. In addition, any Resolution: Either you pay off your debt in full,
violence inflicted upon trespassers is considered someone else pays it off on your behalf, or you begin
justified by default by the criminal underworld. working for your creditor(s), which may confer a
new Condition, such as Notoriety.
Drawback: Turf is claimed by creating obvious Beat: You are unable to afford some vital piece of
marks of ownership, most commonly graffiti equipment or adequately provide for someone under
(“tags”). Anyone with a dot of Streetwise can your care (such as a child or other dependent).
recognize Turf without a roll. Any local with a
Streetwize speciality in Street Gangs will probably
know exactly which gang is in charge. Without Diabetic (Persistent)
a Speciality Turf merely grants a +2 bonus to
Streetwise rolls to recognise who’s in charge. You suffer from Type 2 Diabetes, likely (though not
Claiming Turf in the wrong place can attract necessarily) because you are overweight and/or lead
unwanted attention from the police or worse, and a sedentary lifestyle and have an unhealthy diet.
your gang will likely be a suspect if anything illegal If you go more than roughly 4 to 6 hours without
or suspicious happens on your Turf. food you begin to take one Bashing damage an hour

10
and cannot heal until you have eaten. Diabetes
decreases resistance to disease (-1 on Stamina rolls
to resist infection or disease), causes numbness in
the feet (-1 to Athletics rolls involving the legs or
feet, -1 against frostbite), and may result a loss of
sexual performance for both sexes.
Resolution: While diabetes can be treated and its
symptoms kept at bay with good diet and regular
exercise, modern medicine cannot yet completely
eliminate it. The Charm “Regenerate” (Restore
••••) can cure diabetes, but a lifestyle which
caused diabetes once will likely do so again.
Beat: Your diabetes causes you to sustain
an injury or to fail an important (though not
necessarily physical) task.
Felon (Persistent)
You have been convicted of a felony offence (e.g.
murder, arson, rape, grand theft, and some types
of assault) in a court of law- whether or not you
did the crime. You may be required to serve jail
time, pay a hefty fine, or wear a location-monitoring
device (which will likely not function in the Dark
World or on any other planes of existence). Few
legitimate employers will hire you, and you can be
denied loans and access to housing on this basis
alone. You are legally barred from owning or
possessing any firearm and most forms of weaponry,
though you are allowed to carry tools of your trade
(if you have one), such as hammers, nail guns, and
wrenches. If you are on parole, you must meet
with your parole officer on a weekly basis, and you
may be required to do community service or attend
anger management classes.
Resolution: You are exonerated or proven
innocent. If you were convicted while you possessed
the “Legal Minor” Condition, then a judge may
decide to have your criminal record sealed or
expunged when you turn 18, at his or her discretion
and pending your good behaviour.
Beat: Your criminal record prevents you from
improving your life (e.g., being denied a job or
an apartment, losing custody of your children) or
causes you to lose face or endure humiliation.
Illiterate (Persistent)
The Detroit Public Schools are some of the most
dysfunctional in the United States: only 65% of
Detroit high school students earn their diplomas,
and the majority of those who do are functionally
illiterate; your character is/was one of these
students. Any attempt to read in a stressful
or time-critical situation, or any attempt to read
11
a confusing document (like tricky legalese) will
automatically fail. When an Extended action
requires reading documents, halve the number of
rolls.
Resolution: You learn to read (remember that
learning to read is extremely difficult, and requires
years of training and daily practice). However it
is easier for Princesses, who tend to acquire new
abilities quickly and those who were first born
after the Kingdom’s fall can often draw on the
experiences of a past life (even if their past life
read, say, Swahili, they still have experiences to
adapt to a new language). The Charm “Mercury’s
Blessing” (Connect •, Acqua •) can temporarily
bestow literacy.
Beat: You encounter a hardship which could have
been prevented if you knew how to read.
Obese (Persistent)
More than a third of your body weight comes from
fat. You find it difficult to engage in strenuous
activity (-2 to all actions which requires extensive
physical exertion, such as running, fighting, etc.),
and you temporarily take the “Winded” Condition
after doing so. You also move more slowly than
normal: your Speed is reduced by 2. Resolution:
You lose a significant amount of weight through
persistent adherence to a healthy diet and regular
exercise (which may require an extended Resolve
+ Stamina roll during downtime), undergo gastric
bypass surgery, or powerful body-altering and/or
healing magic.
Beat: You fail (or are unable to attempt) an
important task due to your physical limitations.
Winded
Whether you’ve run a marathon or tried to haul
your out-of-shape body down the street, you’ve
pushed yourself and now you’re paying the toll.
You take -3 to all Physical rolls and -1 to all other
rolls until you’ve had a chance to catch your breath.
In a dire emergency you can forgo the penalty
(you’ll be amazed how quickly your energy returns
when there’s a hungry monster chasing you) but
you take one point of bashing damage per roll when
the adrenaline wears off. This damage will not roll
over into Lethal damage.
Beat: You suffer some significant hardship because
you are incapacitated.
Resolution: The Condition vanishes at the end of
the scene, this does not award a beat.
 damage may increase by 1 to 3 points. Characters
Motor City Is who avoid the fire itself may still have to contend
with Tilts that affect nearby areas like Extreme
Burning Heat, Crumbling, or Airless.
The building itself will take the base Damage
Fires are so common in Detroit that arson - Durability in Structure damage every minute.
has devolved into a form of revenge, and even If it reaches half Structure apply the Crumbling
entertainment. It’s not uncommon for long- Condition. Ending the Tilt: Any fire large enough
simmering feuds to end when one party tosses a to consume the building will take a skilled team
Molotov cocktail through the other’s front window of firefighters or potent magic to extinguish it. If
in the dead of night. Detroiters no longer find neither of those are present the fire will end after it
this shocking, it’s just something that people do has consumed all that it can.
when they’re angry with each other. Some derive
pleasure from taunting the fire department by
lighting repeated blazes in the same house on Airless (Environmental Tilt)
consecutive nights, or lighting several nearby fires Effect: Every character who needs to breathe and
in quick succession. More noble souls burn down has no personal oxygen source must roll Resolve +
Tainted buildings, purging monsters and sealing Stamina. After ten turns per success a character
others away in the Dark World. Some truly will fall unconscious. If they are not provided with
sick souls derive pleasure from tricking firefighters, oxygen soon, they will die.
telling them that there are vagrants or children Causing the Tilt: A blazing inferno, a smallish
trapped in a burning structure, only to laugh air-tight container or magic can create the Tilt.
as the honor-bound firefighters brave death and Ending the Tilt: The Tilt ends automatically
horrendous injury to save nonexistent people. when it’s cause is removed.

Arson
Extended Action: Intelligence + Science -
Durability of the most common material in the
building. Requires successes equal the building’s
Size.
Common Modifiers: Accelerants (+1 to +5,
depending on their effectiveness and quantity).
Dry conditions (+2). Windy conditions (+1 to -
1, depending on intensity). Flammable building
materials (+1 to +3). Wet conditions (-1 to -5).
Dramatic Failure: Not only do you fail to start
a fire, but it becomes immediately obvious that
arson was attempted (scorch marks, burnt smell,
etc.). Any Wits- or Investigation-based rolls on the
nature of the attempted arson become exceptional
successes on 3 successes instead of 5.
Exceptional Success: Attempts to fight the fire
take your Intelligence as a penalty on all rolls. If
you have the Instinctual Arsonist Merit the penalty
is equal to your Wits instead.
Burning (Environmental Tilt)
Firefighting
Mundane firefighting is an extended action. The
target number is based on the building’s Structure.
If the fire has spread to half the building then
extinguishing it requires a number of successes
equal to half the building’s Structure. Each
firefighter rolls a single dice pool every minute that
best represents their current efforts. However the
required Successes grows by six to nine successes a
roll, depending on the flammability of the building.
The remaining number of of Successes represents
the size of the fire. If the number is shrinking, then
the fire is retreating, but if it is growing then the
fire is spreading and may even ignite neighboring
buildings.
The most common dice pools for firefighting are:
• Intelligence + Science to determine type of
fire and develop firefighting plans.
• Dexterity + Stamina to aim giant hoses at
the correct areas.

The building is burning. Flames reach out to
consume and thick smoke fills the air and the lungs
of anyone unlucky enough to be caught inside.
Effect: Everyone within the inferno must roll
Stamina + Athletics once a turn and take (6 -
Successes) lethal damage. If the fire is especially
hot (for example it is in a fuel depot), then the base
• Strength + Athletics to force down doors and
other obstacles.
• Intelligence + Expression or Persuasion
to use comms in order to coordinate
diverse firefighting efforts and other logistics
efficiently.

12
 • Composure + Socialize when reacting to
unforeseen catastrophes during firefighting in
order to maintain the group’s calm, refocus
them and avoid losing progress.
Firefighters who wish to rescue trapped civilians
or perform similar deeds of heroism cannot
contribute to the main extended action, though
they can join in later once they are free to do so.
While it requires potent magic to affect
something as large as an entire building, the right
supernatural ability makes firefighting a lot quicker
and safer. The most effective Charm is “Breath of
Boreas” (Shape ••••, Acqua •••) which can
blanket entire neighbourhoods in rain or ice, easily
quelling the harshest mundane fires. The Heart
of the Flames (Shape •••, Fuoco ••) Charm
can command fires to extinguish themselves, as
the Charm is an Extended Action a Princess
(with enough Wisps) may be able to command an
building’s worth of fire to quell itself.
Working for
Scraps
Amateur salvage operations, or “scrapping”, is
an extremely common (and extremely dangerous)
occupation for the poor and underprivileged of
Detroit. In a city where regular and legal jobs
are few and far between, and access to reliable
transportation (either a car or a bus line that
runs on schedule) is rarer still, scrapping is one
of the most in-demand and profitable occupations,
and it carries a slightly smaller criminal penalty
than most extra-legal jobs. It’s important to
note, however, that scrapping is not always illegal.
Most scrappers operate entirely within the law
(though their businesses are often unregistered and
unofficial), picking up stray bits of metal from
places where they have every right to be, and doing
what anyone has a right to do: picking up trash and
turning it into money. Illegal scrappers garner the
most media attention because their actions do the
most damage.
Almost everything in scrapping, from the tools
to the trucks, is jury-rigged. Virtually all scrappers
are amateurs who know next to nothing about
power tools, electrical work, or structural integrity.
As such, most don’t even consider taking basic
safety precautions like wearing goggles, earplugs,
or hardhats. Given that they handle sharp, heavy,
and awkwardly-shaped pieces of metal for a living,
injuries and infections are very common among
scrappers.
13
An Intelligence + Streetwise roll may be
necessary to locate a job-site, especially if you want
to find one that’s not occupied by someone you
don’t want to meet, and a Dexterity + Larceny
roll may be needed to get inside. The Storyteller
may choose to make the first roll in secret on the
player’s behalf.
Before work commences the scrapper(s) must
survey the building and roll Intelligence + Science,
and any penalties for inclement weather, poor
lighting, and picked-over sites. If the roll succeeds
they have surveyed the building well enough to
avoid unpleasant surprises. If they fail then they
only think they have.
Then, the scrapper(s) makes a Strength +
Stamina roll, adding successes from the first roll to
this dice pool as bonus dice, to determine how much
metal he is able to remove from the building in
thirty to sixty minutes of work. Each success on the
roll nets the scrapper(s) one single-use dot of the
Resources merit, and deals one point of Structure
damage to the building.
If the scrappers failed the Streetwise roll, or
did not achieve enough success when surveying
the building the Storyteller should introduce
some complication: a Darkspawn nesting in the
basement, a meth lab or homeless family squatting
in the building, or the building is far more
structurally unsound than anyone expected and
cannot take the strain. The average modern
building will lose about 1d10 Structure points per
year of abandonment, assuming no other forces
(such as arsonists or scrappers) act upon it. When
a building has lost half of its Structure points
it begins to collapse, halving the Speed of all
those inside and imposing a -3 to all Physical
dice pools. When the building has taken its
full Structure in damage (or when scrappers score
either a dramatic failure or an exceptional success
on a Strength + Stamina roll after the building has
partially collapsed), it collapses entirely, dealing
[Size] dice of bashing damage to everyone inside it
and burying them alive, which may begin to cause
suffocation after a few minutes (either roll 2d10 for
randomness, or use Storyteller’s discretion).
Although iron and steel are the easiest to find
and obtain, thanks to their magnetic properties,
nonferrous metals (aluminum, tin, brass, etc)
are the most valuable to scrapyards. Copper is
especially profitable, but many scrappers are killed
after unknowingly cutting into wires which they
didn’t realize were live, or being electrocuted when
water spilling from old pipes completes a circuit
with a nearby socket.
To save themselves the effort of manually
removing tons of paint, plastic coating, and
incriminating decals from their findings, scrappers
typically toss it all into the basket of a shopping
cart, light a bonfire underneath it, and wait
for everything but the metal to burn or melt
away. This process often releases choking black
smoke and invisible fumes (Toxicity 3), but it
does dramatically cut down on time- and energy-
expenditure. Some scrappers apply this technique
before they collect the metal: they simply pick a
building, set it ablaze, wait for the fire department
to put it out, then walk through the burned-
out hulk and pick bits of metal out of the ashes.
Mechanically, this removes the need to survey
the building but invites the firefighters and later
an Arson investigator to look for evidence of
wrongdoing.
Inspirational
Materials
At more than three hundred years old, Detroit has
played host to its share of dramatic and historic
events, and has been the setting or subject of
many films, songs, and stories. Below you’ll find
an assortment of fact and fiction which can lend
verisimilitude to any Detroit chronicle.
Books
• Detroit: An American Autopsy, by Charlie
LeDuff – A firsthand account of just how
fucked-up Detroit really is, told by a native
son who cares enough about his city to get
pissed off about it. A must-read for any
player or Storytellers who plan to interact
with Detroit firefighters, law enforcement, or
city politics.
• Detroit: A Biography, by Scott Martelle
– This succinct history traces Detroit’s
rise from frontier trading-post to major
manufacturing center, and the long, painful
decline which followed. The author gives
much insightful commentary on the twin
issues of race and class in Detroit, while
managing to avoid the blame-slinging which
continues to stifle meaningful dialogue.
• Detroit City Is the Place to Be, by Mark
Binelli – A rare optimistic look at some of the
things about Detroit that are actually getting
better. It might be cliché, but when you’ve
got nothing left to lose, it really does give you
the freedom to try anything you want.
14
• Legends of le Détroit, by Marie Caroline
Watson Hamlin – This large collection of
Detroit folklore from the seventeenth through
nineteenth centuries can be a valuable source
of real-world legends and a cool prop for
players to “discover” in the course of doing
research. Contains several local legends
about lutins, loup-garou, ghosts, demons, and
the earliest-known written reference to Le
Nain Rouge. The author’s casual, patronizing
racism towards Native Americans can be a
tad off-putting at times, though.
Film
• 8 Mile – This 2002 Eminem vehicle features
plenty of gritty scenery, shot mainly in
Detroit and its northern suburb Warren
(Slim Shady’s real-life hometown). The main
character’s climactic discovery of his own
musical voice could be seen as a Blossoming
of sorts, and his struggle to keep his family
and economic situations from disintegrating
will sound familiar to many Detroiters.
• Attack the Block – Though set in a South
London tower block (a bastion of prosperity
and stability compared to Detroit) this film
is still worth watching for its ability to
present the viewer with faceless thugs and
then gradually humanise them over the course
of the movie.
• The Crow – It’s easy to see Eric Draven
a Sin-Eater with an animalistic Geist, but
his burning desire to retaliate against the
gangbangers who murdered him and his
fiancée could make him a Prince of Storms, an
Ambassador to Death, or even a particularly
lucid Goalenu. Sergeant Albrecht is a
great example of how quickly things can get
really weird for any cop who teams up with
supernaturals.
• Dan Rather Reports - A National Disgrace -
An in depth look at the Detroit Public School
system by one of America’s most revered
reporters. Any player looking to play a Noble
from the inner-city schools should give this a
cursory watch just to see what the learning
conditions are actually like.
• Deforce – An eye-opening look at 20th
century Detroit history, and just how badly
the city has declined since the 1950s. Includes
many examples of the spectacular corruption
which crippled the Motor City and continues
to hamper its efforts to heal and rebuild.
 • Detroit – A truly horrifying film, made all
the more unsettling by its truth. The riot
scenes could provide useful ideas for what
happens if and when the people of Detroit get
angry enough, while the gut-wrenching police
brutality (which borders on the psychotic)
could explain why so many Detroiters don’t
trust cops. The racist, murderous Officer
Krauss would make a terrifying antagonist for
any nakama, whether they work outside the
law or within it.
• Detroit 1-8-7 – A police procedural following
the homicide division of the Detroit Police
Department. Notable for its ethnically- and
gender-diverse cast, on-location filming, and
cases inspired by actual Detroit headlines.
• It Follows – After losing her virginity,
a teenage girl from Detroit’s suburbs is
relentlessly followed by a murderous, slow-
moving, shape-changing, gender-switching
thing. Whatever “it” is, the 8-bit soundtrack
by Disasterpeace will scare the bejeezus out
of you.
• Robocop – Even back in the ‘80s, the idea
that an automated force of killing-machines
would be the only way to clean up Detroit
didn’t seem too terribly far-fetched. The
2014 remake asks some interesting questions
about free will and the nature of heroism, and
adds a strained family dynamic with which an
overworked Princess might easily identify.
• Gran Torino – Clint Eastwood’s 2008 film
Glossary of Terms
about an elderly, white, racist Korean
War veteran factory-worker living out his
retirement amidst Detroit’s blight, this film
shows the life of those white workers
left behind from the White Flight to the
suburbs. Eastwood’s character could provide
inspiration for an aging Prince of Storms, or a
low-Belief Noble who has enough idealism left
in him for one last fight. Also sheds light on
how gangs “recruit” (i.e., force) young men
into joining them within the city.
Music
• Angel Haze – A Detroit native of mixed
African-American and Cherokee ancestry,
this powerful female rapper never shies
away from sensitive and controversial topics,
including her unorthodox gender-expression
and the sexual abuse which she suffered as
a child. Great inspiration for Princesses who
want to rise above their grim backstories.
15
• Detroit Techno – Detroit is considered
by many to be the birthplace of techno
music, and for many years it has been
a haven and playground to purist DJs
who resent corporate-engineered attempts to
commercialize electronica. Great places to
start listening include Juan Atkins, Kevin
Saunderson and Derrick May (”the Belleville
Three”), and the Detroit Techno Militia
collective.
• Eminem – Even when he’s not rapping about
the 313, Slim Shady’s lyrics open a window
into the lives of the urban poor: what it’s like
to have a drug-addict mother and an absent
father, what it’s like being a single parent in
the ghetto, what it’s like to have your life-
savings stolen out from under your mattress
and not even having enough money left to
replace the broken lock on your door.
• Motown – There are still young people in
Detroit, and in spite of everything, they
still fall in (and out of) love. For older
Princesses, Motown artists – such as Smokey
Robinson and the Miracles, Stevie Wonder,
The Supremes, The Jackson 5, and many
others – were likely the soundtrack for their
formative years, and a potent reminder of
brighter, happier days.
• 313 (“Three-One-Three”): Slang
expression for Detroit; the area code for
Detroit phone numbers.
• The D: Slang for “Detroit”.
• The Big Three: The three American
Automotive companies. Ford Motor
Company, General Motors, Fiat-Chrysler
of America (still referred to as Chrysler by
locals).
• Coney: A common fast food dish in Detroit,
the Coney dog. Beef hot dog on a bun, topped
with chili sauce, diced onions and mustard.
• Devil’s Night/Angel’s Night: October
30th. A night of heightened arsons. Mass
volunteer patrols are organized under the
banner of “Angel’s Night” to assist police and
fire departments in reporting and responding
to arsons.
• Metro Detroit: The Detroit metropolitan
area including both the city of Detroit and
the surrounding suburbs. There are several
different definitions of Metro Detroit, each
encompassing a different area.
• “Mile” Roads: every mile north of Campus
Martius, there lies an east-west “Mile” road
(starting with 7 Mile Rd and continuing
up through 37 Mile Rd). Most businesses
16
and private residences in Metro Detroit give
their locations in relation to the nearest Mile
road(s). Detroit’s northern border runs down
the middle of 8 Mile Road, making the street
a synecdoche Detroit’s borders generally, or
for the city itself.
• Urban Detroit: The city of Detroit,
excluding the surrounding suburbs.
Chapter 1: Bones of
the City
“Since its founding, Detroit has been a place of perpetual flames. Three times the city has suffered race
riots and three times the city has burned to the ground. The city’s flag acknowledges as much.
Speramus Meliora; Resurget Cineribus: We hope for better things; it shall rise from the ashes.”
—Charlie LeDuff, Detroit: An American Autopsy

17
 French and British settlers, siding with the French
Michi Gami in the Seven Years War.
After the American Revolution the Kickapoo
Prior to the arrival of Europeans, Michigan were forced to sign a series of treaties with the
was primarily inhabited by Algonquian-speaking United States, each one holding less and less weight
peoples who led a semi-settled agricultural lifestyle. with the Americans while requiring the Kickapoo
After contact was established, European diseases to give up more of their land. When the Native
tore through the Indigenous populations, resulting American Tecumseh launched his rebellion against
in large-scale upheaval and sociopolitical chaos. the United States in 1811, the Kickapoo warriors
The introduction of European knives and guns, as joined his army. Even after he was defeated,
well as their insatiable demand for both animal furs the Kickapoo warriors fought on the side of the
and Indian scalps, quickly transformed the tribes British in the War of 1812. Because the British
of the Great Lakes into semi-nomadic hunters and decided to negotiate a treaty to end the war rather
warriors. than continue the fighting, the Kickapoo warriors,
outnumbered and outgunned, were forced to finally
give up the last of their land to the United States
The Ojibwe (Chippewa) and live on government reservations in Kansas,
The Ojibwe were a sedentary culture who practiced Oklahoma, and Mexico.
agriculture, supplemented by hunting and fishing.
They developed a form of pictorial writing on
birch bark scrolls which preserved mathematical The Meskwaki (Fox) and
and historical knowledge. These histories tell
that the Ojibwe migrated west from the Atlantic
Sauk
coast in advance of Europeans. For a time the The Sauk and Meskwaki peoples were notable
Ojibwe thrived, developing trade routes across the exceptions to their neighbors in one important fact:
continent and with the French. In exchange for Where the Kickapoo and Ojibwe developed close
furs the Ojibwe acquired European goods and guns, relations with the French Traders that came to the
which allowed them to dominate their enemies and Great Lakes Region, these allied tribes distrusted
take vast territories including present-day Detroit. and fought against the French colonists from the
But their fortunes were not to last. The Ojibwe very beginning.
fought and faced defeat alongside their French The Meskwaki were settled along the shores of
allies in the Seven Years’ War. When the British the Ontario Bay, but the Sauk lived to the north
took over France’s eastern colonial territories, and of modern Detroit in Saginaw Bay. The two had
subsequently ceded them to the newly independent been historically close allies before the French had
United States, the Ojibwe faced settler intrusions ever set foot in the Americas.
into their land. In the War of 1812 the Ojibwe The Meskwaki people refused to make any trade
fought with the British, hoping a British victory concessions with French trappers and fought two
would provide protection against American settlers. wars to maintain control of their homelands, but
The stalemate that followed provided little, and the without any guns or steel from the fur trade they
Ojibwe were forced to move further westward as the had little chance of prevailing against the French
settlers advanced. and their allies. Still, their resistance was so fierce
Today few Ojibwe remain in Michigan, though and bloody that King Louis XIV signed a royal
they can be found by sailing north into Canada. decree authorizing the extermination of the entire
However their ties to Les Voyageurs and the tribe- a royally sanctioned genocide. The 1500
Midewiwin means that any Hunter in Detroit may survivors from the Second Fox War attempted to
encounter their legacy when digging into the occult. cross overland to British territory in Illinois in hope
of escaping the French colonists. The majority of
The Kickapoos the people in this exodus were either massacred by
the French or sold into slavery to their allied tribes.
When French explorers reached the great lakes The survivors of this genocide and slavery found
it was the Meskwaki and Kickapoo nations who refuge with the Sauk, their old allies. The French
greeted them. The Kickapoo were a nomadic demanded the survivors be turned over to face the
people whose range covered southern Michigan and King’s “justice” or the Sauk would face war. The
northwest Ohio, but were primarily found in the Sauk, already suffering attacks from French traders,
modern state of Indiana. Like the Ojibwe, the would not surrender their Meskwaki brothers and
Kickapoo tribe engaged in fur trading with the sisters. Instead they left Michigan altogether.

18
Their people moved west into what is today Illinois in Black Hawk’s War against the United States in
and Wisconsin, with many heading further into Illinois but would never again return to Michigan
Iowa and Kansas. They would later lead the fight as a unified nation.

The Mound-Builders Midewiwin

Before it belonged to the tribes who were present at
the time of first contact with Europeans, the Great
Lakes region was populated by a people known as
the Mound Builders. But by the time Europeans
reached the Midwest, even the local tribes had little
knowledge of the Mound Builders. A handful of
offhanded mentions in European Hunters’ journals
suggest that indigenous Hunters were conducting
archaeological investigations into certain mounds.
However if those mounds ever had occult power it
had either faded or been hidden by the time modern
Princesses tried to uncover it through their own
magical abilities.
The Midewiwin (“Grand Medicine Society”), was
a secretive organization which drew members from
several tribes throughout the Great Lakes region,
including the Ojibwe (Chippewa), whose territory
included what is now Detroit. Much information
about the Midewiwin has been lost to history and
most of what survives was compiled by Europeans,
making it heavily biased at best.
Princesses have discovered Midewiwin artifacts
at the epicenters of several particularly virulent
Darkspawn outbreaks. This has lead to speculation
that the duties of the Midew included purifying
Taint, but there is no hard evidence to confirm or
disprove that Great Medicine Society sealed those

19
Darkspawn away. A few surviving journals record
some limited exchanges of information between the
Midewiwin and French Hunters in the earliest days
of European settlement. These journals are scanty
on details, and thus far no concrete information
about the relationship between European Hunters
and the Midewiwin has come to light. The
exact fate of the Midewiwin is unknown. Most
Princesses assume that the devastation of First
Nations cultures during European colonization is
responsible for the society’s downfall.
Fort
Pontchartrain du
Détroit
could never be entirely destroyed. Les Voyageurs
lasted until the end of the world to which they
belonged. In time urbanization came to the Great
Lakes and the monsters of the wilderness either
retreated, died, or adapted. With no purpose Les
Voyageurs faded into the annals of history.
Les Voyageurs were never rich, and had
few occult resources beyond calling favours from
whichever personal allies a member might be on
good terms with, but a few Hunters’ journals
survive to this day. Detroit’s Nobility have far too
many pressing problems to spend time studying
obscure history, but as the urban prairie grows
across Detroit, who knows what strange creatures
from the past might return to their old hunting
grounds. With so few First Nations records
remaining the fragmented records of Les Voyageurs
may in many cases contain the only surviving lore
regarding a given type of monster.

Though the Great Lakes have been inhabited for

millennia, most histories of Detroit begin with Le Nain Rouge
its founding by Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac
in 1701. Cadillac sought to protect French fur- Legend says that before he left Montreal to found
trading interests in the Great Lakes against English his new city, an old fortune-teller warned Cadillac
encroachment, and the narrow strait (“le détroit” in that he should “appease the Nain Rouge (Red
French) was the ideal location to mount a defense Dwarf). Beware of offending him. Should you be
of this vital waterway. Erecting a wooden palisade thus unfortunate not a vestige of your inheritance
and christening the settlement “Fort Pontchartrain will be given to your heirs.” Six years later, during a
du Détroit” after his patron, Cadillac invited Native particularly joyous May Day celebration, Cadillac
Americans to resettle around the fort, offering was accosted by “the uncouth figure of a dwarf, very
favorable trading deals and the protection of the red in the face, with a bright, glistening eye… [and
French crown. This was the first of Detroit’s many a] grinning mouth displaying sharp, pointed teeth”.
waves of employment-oriented migration. Surprised and alarmed, Cadillac lashed out with his
cane at the creature, which vanished into the night
with a fiendish laugh. A few days later, nearly every
Les Voyageurs structure in the mostly-wooden settlement burned
to the ground. Cadillac returned to Montreal
The massive changes wrought by the fur trade to beg for funds to rebuild, but was imprisoned
led to new dangers for both Europeans and First by his enemies and forced to sell his lordship to
Nations alike. Les Voyageurs was the natural pay for his trial. Although the government of
consequence: a loose web of alliances and contacts Nouvelle France awarded him the governorship of
through which traders, trappers, and woodsmen the Louisiana, Cadillac would never again set eyes
could share information and resources. Les on the city he founded. Throughout the years which
Voyageurs were never unified in structure or cause. followed, the Dwarf would be seen before every
At its loosest, the compact a way to share warnings major catastrophe which struck Detroit, including
about strange monsters in the wilderness; at its invasion, pestilence, riots, and fires.
most unified, they worked together to rid the
wilderness of monsters (or at least send them a clear
message that humans were off the menu). Most of Fort Detroit
the time they fell somewhere in the middle, coming
together to deal with a threat or hunt a lucrative During the French and Indian Wars, France ceded
quarry before returning their gaze to simpler prey. Fort Pontchartrain to the British, who renamed
With membership drawn from several nations it “Fort Detroit”. The British did not cultivate
(both European and indigenous) Les Voyageurs had good relations with the First Nations. The
a turbulent history. Yet its loose nature meant British focused their efforts on restraining colonial
that while the compact could easily fracture, it settlement rather than offering concessions to the

20
Native Americans. The First Peoples soon revolted
against these new colonial invaders under the
leadership of Chief Pontiac. Though Pontiac’s
Rebellion besieged the fort for several months, he
was ultimately repulsed and murdered by his own
warriors for his failure to drive the British out.
The fort would change hands several times between
the British and Americans before the border was
settled. When the British surrendered Fort Detroit
for the final time, many loyalists fled across the
river and founded the town of Windsor, Ontario.
Fire and Ashes
On June 12, 1805, the newly-appointed Judge
Augustus B. Woodward arrived in Detroit to begin
his term as territorial judge. Instead of a grand
welcome, he was greeted by the blank-faced stares
of homeless refugees. Just one day before his
arrival, a fire had broken out in the early hours
of the morning and quickly consumed virtually
every structure in the mostly-wooden city. By
nightfall every physical trace of the city’s century
of history had been reduced to ash. In the wake
of this catastrophe, Father Gabriel Richard coined
a Latin phrase which would eventually become the
city’s motto: Speramus meliora; resurget cineribus
(Latin: “We hope for better things; it will arise
from the ashes”)
Judge Woodward quickly took charge of the
rebuilding effort and instituted a cohesive plan
for the new city to ensure its safety and future
growth. Woodward borrowed his fellow Freemason
Pierre Charles L’Enfant’s layout for Washington
D.C., which consisted mainly of a hexagonal array
of broad avenues radiating from a central park.
Woodward named the park Campus Martius, Latin
for “the field of Mars,” where Roman heroes walked.
This Enlightenment-inspired city plan ultimately
proved impractical, and a grid-based street plan
was later imposed atop Judge Woodward’s designs.
Under his watch, Detroit became known for its
timber and furniture industries.
Judge Woodward is said to have based his plans
for the city upon his “vast knowledge of the celestial
system”. Some of the Nobility have theorized that
the radiating avenues might be designed to channel
the power of ambient ley-lines, or even to act as
a city-sized solar calendar. If that is the case,
then the question remains: is it marking time since
something happened, or until it happens?
21
Rise and Fall of the
Motor City
Detroit’s rise as an industrial powerhouse was no
accident. The city was perfectly located with large
deposits of iron and coal nearby and easy access by
both land and water. In the early 20th century over
125 car manufacturers were present in Detroit, but
it would take just one to transform the city forever:
The Ford Motor Company.
Work on Ford’s production lines was hard
and turnover was high. In order to endow
his company with a stable and loyal workforce
Henry Ford sent recruiters around the world and
announced the five dollar day, more than doubling
his workers’ standard wages. Skilled artisans
came from England and Scotland, while blue collar
workers arrived from the Midwest, Mexico, and
the American South as African Americans travelled
north in the Great Migration. Italian and Polish
immigrants arriving in New York’s Ellis Island from
Europe were told stories of honest work and good
living in the city of industry. While Ford enticed
workers with the promise of the five-dollar day,
that prestigious wage was only granted to those
employees who lived strict, moral lives according to
codes set by Ford himself, and these company laws
were enforced by an army of private investigators.
These corporate muscle men were also used to
engage in Union busting - assaulting any workers
who attempted to strike or make attempts to
organize while off the clock.
At the mid twentieth century, Detroit was at
its apex. One in every six working Americans
contributed in some way to the auto industry
and the “Big Three” (General Motors, Ford, and
Chrysler) were all based in Detroit. Surrounding
the automobile factories was an entire supporting
industry: steel and glassworks, later joined by
plastics. Smaller factories making everything
from spark plugs to hood ornaments sprang up.
The entire Midwest was bound together in one
enormous manufacturing economy.
As the ranks of factory workers grew so did
their power, and after bloody battles between the
workers and the Big Three in the 1930s, wages and
benefits once again grew. When Japan attacked
Pearl Harbor the already busy factories became
roaring war machines churning out tanks, bombers,
planes and rifles while being flooded with federal
cash to pay for the material needs of the war
effort. With the city awash in dollars, autoworkers
could become suburban homeowners, send their
children to college, and take vacations in resort
towns throughout Michigan. Detroit had reached
the top of industrial life... and as they say, once
you reach the top the only place to go is down.
Though Japan and Germany’s auto companies
are often blamed for Detroit’s decline, it actually
began decades before their rise, around 1950- and
at the hands of the US Government. The Arsenal of
Democracy was no longer receiving a massive influx
of government cash to churn out military supplies.
Though Detroit may have done more than any
other city to win the Second World War, American
dollars now were needed to help rebuild the
Japanese and German nations as bulwarks against
Communism. Which meant rebuilding Japanese
and German industry as fast as possible. Federal
dollars soon flooded West Germany, Japan, France,
and other nations devastated by the war. Detroit’s
factories had to balance their books without the
government’s thumb on their side of the scales, and
they found themselves returning to the free market
at a time when foreign competition was never
fiercer. Concurrently with these developments
a second Great Migration of African Americans
brought new citizens to Detroit just as the well
paying jobs they were promised started vanishing.
Their disappointment, poor housing options, and
competition with white workers for increasingly
scarce jobs fuelled racial tensions.
With increasing competition between each other
and the rest of the globe, the Big Three had to
“get fit” in order to stay afloat. Corporate policies
like “planned obsolescence” and rushed production
disasters like the Ford Pinto (a vehicle with a
minor design oversight- its gas tank was prone
to explode if rear-ended, making it the source
of the Hollywood “exploding car” trope in every
action movie) did little to endear people to the
American manufacturers. Where once industrial
titans like Henry Ford had owned the entire
chain of production- with every nut, bolt, and
tire produced in company owned steel plants and
rubber plantations, then assembled in company
factories- the boards of directors found it would
be cheaper and easier to outsource production
to smaller mom and pop factories throughout
Michigan and the Midwest, and simply assemble
the finished products in the company plants. These
factories were built in Detroit at first, but then
sprang up in cheaper land far north of the city and
in the neighboring states of Ohio, Wisconsin, and
Indiana. Employees laid off from the Big Three
took jobs in these factories, sold their city homes
and moved to the budding suburbs. Detroit would
never again be the same.
22
NAFTA and Detroit
The North American Free Trade Agreement
was enacted on January 4th, 1994. Much
like December 7th will be known as a Day
of Infamy in American history, January 4th
is looked at with nothing but hatred by blue
collar Detroiters.
Economists and CEOs continue to argue
the merits of the trade deal, but it
cannot be denied that after NAFTA was
passed many of the automotive plants
within the American Midwest shifted
production to Mexico leaving behind only
a token American workforce to oversee new
automated production lines. Investors,
CEOs, and middle management within the
Automotive Industry reaped the rewards
in stock prices and earnings reports while
former line workers either retired in a
Union Buyout or were forced to take work
elsewhere for less pay - if they could find a
job at all.
Whether or not preventing NAFTA
would have saved the American worker,
NAFTA has become a target for politicians
(both liberal and conservative) and union
bosses to mobilize their power base, either
sincerely hoping to organize for a better
Agreement or just looking to score easy
points and votes from Detroit’s embittered
blue collar workers. Their anger at
the Arrangement and the politicians who
introduced it cannot be overstated. Any
Noble would be well advised to avoid saying
a kind word about NAFTA in public, those
that consider it report feeling the sort of
instinctual aversion you’d usually only feel
around an aggressive bear.
The Sons of St. Casimir
Polish immigrants began to trickle into Detroit in
the late 1800s, and by the first decade of the 20th
century their numbers had swollen dramatically as
new factories promised higher wages and better
lives. From the dark forests and misty mountains
of their native land they brought with them two
seemingly-incompatible things: Catholicism, and a
sizable body of heathen folk-magic. Remembering
their grandmothers’ tales of witches, vampires,
and rusalkas, the Poles of Detroit were well-
equipped to notice and understand the reality of the
supernatural threats which faced their community.
The Sons (and occasionally Daughters) of St.
Casimir began to organize in the late 1800s, and
by the onset of WWII virtually every type of
supernatural creature in Detroit knew better than
to enter a Polish neighbourhood or attack anyone
with connections to the Polish community.
For all their power in battle the Sons of St.
Casimir were as helpless as any other detroiter in
the face of economic decline and cultural change.
As Detroit deteriorated, all who could afford
to leave did so, and Poles were no exception:
their neighbourhoods might have been safe from
supernatural meddling but they still had families
to feed and so they followed the jobs to the
suburbs. Polish neighbourhoods emptied, Polish
families assimilated into the American melting pot,
the influence of fraternal and cultural societies
weakened, and Hunters grew rusty and died. The
last living Son of St. Casimir was hit by a car and
killed in 1974 while walking to church one Sunday
morning.
Although the Sons of St. Casimir are gone,
a handful of Polish churches still stand within
Detroit’s borders, and some of these may yet
contain potent saintly relics. Less-orthodox relics
of the pagan variety might be discovered in
old steamer-trunks pulled from babcia’s attic or
decoded from dziadzio’s secret journals.
The Rise of C.O.R.D.
On November 18th, 1948 twelve well to do members
of the black community met in an loft above
Edward and Rosa’ Geers office and dedicated
themselves to a single mission: To ensure fair
access to housing for all Detroit’s citizens. Almost
from its inception the newly formed Community
Organisation to Reform Detroit found itself on
the back foot. Instead of organising to unlock
new opportunities for their community C.O.R.D.
found itself fighting “urban renewal”, a polite term
for knocking down ageing black neighbourhoods to
build houses for white families.
Early victories in getting court injunctions
to delay demolitions grew C.O.R.D.s reputation
and the membership swelled with supporters and
activists, but when the court cases concluded
in favour of the developers C.O.R.D.’s successes
turned to ash. The anger felt by members
facing eviction turned into demands for militant
action, leaving C.O.R.D. all but paralysed in three
way conflict between members who supported the
existing strategies, members who felt they had
nothing to lose, and a third faction emboldened by
a hidden power: The Outer Darkness. They wanted
23
to see both violent action and the violent backlash
it would provoke.
The tipping point came in 1959 as the
neighbourhood of Black Bottom was demolished to
make way for the Chrysler Freeway. The Geers
found themselves swept away by a wave of fresh
anger. C.O.R.D.’s leadership body was sidelined in
all but name by a new “members committee” and
a campaign of intimidation and violence against
developers began. Over the next eight years
C.O.R.D. began to bleed dry as moderate members
left and militant activists were caught by the police;
many wouldn’t live to see a jail cell. As the
decade progressed and both factions of activists
dwindled in number the Darkness solidified it’s
influence over C.O.R.D. One by one the remaining
members pledged themselves to the Darkness and
it’s promises of power and vengeance.
Only luck saved C.O.R.D. from walking this self
destructive path to its final conclusion. The chaos
of the 1967 rebellion provided ample opportunities
for a servant of the Darkness. As Detroit
burned, C.O.R.D. slipped through the smoke and
shadows in search of victims. As they moved
they gathered civilians with nothing left to lose,
impressing them with secret displays of dark magic
and promises of power and vengeance; those who
refused to join became yet more victims. Five
days latter C.O.R.D. emerged from the chaos, their
membership swollen with new recruits and the
ranks of veterans thinned by deaths and betrayals
amongst the chaos. It was a new C.O.R.D. that
emerged from the riot. A larger, stronger C.O.R.D.
but one divided and confused by its own rapid
growth.
Thomas Cotton found them a few days later,
having tracked down the largest source of the
new Taints staining Detroit. He saw in C.O.R.D.
exactly what he needed, a group with power,
resources, and a reputation - even if tarnished -
as champions of the community, but also malleable
in the right hands. Thomas signed the membership
rolls and began to speak to the organisation one by
one over the coming weeks, recruiting them to his
vision of a newer, patient and cunning C.O.R.D.
When he’d spoken to everyone he’d judged worthy
and open to recruitment Thomas gave the word,
a routine meeting turned into a bloodbath as the
membership was culled, the bodies dumped in a
closed up mine shaft in the Detroit Salt Works, and
just like that C.O.R.D. belonged to Thomas.
The rest is history.

White Flight
On June 29, 1956, Dwight D. Eisenhower signed
the Federal Aid Highway Act. The bill was
meant to establish a national network of highways
to link the Continental United States for the
purpose of emergency travel and movement of
defense assets in the face of foreign attack or
invasion. While the feared Soviet attack never
came, the freeways still changed Detroit forever.
Whole neighbourhoods (often poor and black)
were bulldozed to make room for the enormous
construction projects that would soon financially
gut their home city. Detroit’s white residents,
lacking the subways and rail systems of New York
City and Chicago, suddenly had quick, reliable,
safe transit to the cheap land and cookie-cutter
housing developments springing up in the suburbs
of Warren, Saint Clair Shores, and Troy- all within
close proximity to new mom and pop factories being
built to supply the Big Three. The effect of this
transit system was immediate and devastating.
The Greatest Generation began leaving the city
for the suburbs, commuting to work with their
cars, leaving Detroit behind while raising their
2.5 kids behind white picket fences with their
housewives. Detroit’s African American residents,
meanwhile, were denied such housing through
predatory “redlining” practices among banks and
mortgage companies - if a black family entered a
real estate agent’s office with cash in hand for a
home, it didn’t matter - all of a sudden the bustling
white suburbs were full up. While the enormous
ditches and soaring bridges for the interstates were
built through their neighbourhoods, their white
landlords continued to charge exorbitant rent rates
for paltry housing options. When the 12th Street
Riots happened, most of the damage was done not
to property the black residents owned, but property
they rented. They were mad as hell about being
taken advantage of, and they weren’t going to take
it anymore.
The white residents who hadn’t left for the
suburbs either ignored or didn’t care about
this fact. They saw their black neighbors
burning majority black neighbourhoods - and this
confirmed their worst assumptions about their
fellow Detroiters. If White Flight was a fire,
the riot simply poured more gas on the flames.
Any white person with means packed up and
fled during the next few years. The effects on
Detroit’s demographics were extraordinary. In
1950, Detroit’s population was roughly 80-20
White/African American. By the coming of the
New Millennium, it had completely flipped- Detroit
24
was now 80% African American, 10% White.
The Talented Tenth
Depending on how you look at it, the Talented
Tenth are either one Compact or several Compacts
who form a lineage stretching back over a hundred
years. In its earliest incarnation, the Tenth was
an militant arm of the Underground Railroad.
Monsters have been preying upon humanity for as
long as there were humans, and the opportunity to
do so with the full support of human authorities
tempted many to antebellum America.
When the Underground Railroad found
themselves harassed by some inhuman monster
determined to recover or prevent the loss of
“its property” they called upon the Talented
Tenth. Its members were a motley mix of freed
slaves, abolitionists, and agents of older Hunter
organizations who used the Railroad’s name to
strike at their inhuman enemies beneath the notice
of mortal authorities.
Following the abolition of slavery the
conductors of the Underground Railroad went
their own way. Most of the Compact’s African
Americans followed the great migration north
and settled in cities like New York, Chicago, and
Detroit.
The conductors of the Tenth who settled in
Detroit found that their occult lore and skills were
in high demand. Race relations were meant that
even Hunters rarely crossed the borders between
the African American and white communities. It
was the knowledge and experience The Talented
Tenth learned while conducting the Underground
Railroad that allowed African American hunters
to protect their community with a fraction of
the resources and freedoms granted to their white
counterparts.
The Tenth lasted longer in Detroit than they
ever did as part of the Railroad. At first they
took the guise of a labor union, and then, as the
civil rights movement picked up steam, the Tenth
reorganized themselves around their churches,
coalescing into a group dedicated to protecting
African American community, to promoting civil
rights, and to their unique interpretation of
scripture that blended Protestantism with their
personal experiences of the supernatural.
It was in this guise that the Talented Tenth
met their greatest foe. C.O.R.D. The Tenth’s
doctrine of Christian compassion and skilled
hunters faced against C.O.R.D.’s doctrine of hate
and its monsters, and it was found wanting. As the
Hunter’s who lived closest to C.O.R.D. the Tenth
were the first to oppose the new hidden threat
stalking Detroit but they were also the first to
realize that the monsters were going to win. In
response they made their final, Biblical, play: a
great Exodus. Over the course of a year the Tenth
called upon contacts across all fifty states and
organized the resettlement of thousands of families
from their churches to safer communities. On the
last busses the Hunters followed, their heads held
high after a century of fighting the good fight.
Former members of the Tenth can be found
among The Radiant Campaign, Local 911, and even
The Lost Boys. They also left behind a number of
Blessed Places, many of which are fiercely protected
by The Lost Boys. However the true legacy of the
The summer of 1967 was a hot one in terms
of both temperature and political climate. War
raged in Vietnam and protests flourished across
the country. With nearly all of Detroit’s 140,000
African-American residents crammed into a few
square miles around the remnants of Black Bottom
and Paradise Valley, Detroit was more heavily
segregated than many cities of the Deep South.
It’s been called many things since it happened
50 years ago. Academics call it the 12th Street Riot
for its starting location. Detroiters call it “the 1967
Rebellion.” Whites call it “the Detroit Riot” or “the
Riot.”
It began in the early-morning hours of July 23,
1967. Detroit police raided a birthday party for
two black soldiers recently returned from Vietnam
at a “blind pig” - an illegal bar. Unaware of the
party, police arrived to make a few arrests for illegal
liquor sales but found more than eighty people in
25
Talented Tenth is its retired Hunters. While the
exodus took the Tenth to safe communities with
few monsters the social network used to organize
the exodus has only grown. Should a Princess take
it upon herself to track down and recruit former
members of the Talented Tenth, they could bring
a lot of friends with them when they return to
Detroit.
The Powderkeg
Blows
attendance. The cops decided to arrest everyone
present at the establishment and called for backup
while an angry crowd gathered outside. The officers
left after the onlookers began throwing bottles and
bricks at them, but the crowd, too agitated and
angry to disperse, began looting nearby stores. The
mayor dispatched squads of police to arrest the
looters and restore order, but since much of the
frustration which caused the riot stemmed from the
rioters’ poor treatment at the hands of the police
this only served to exacerbate the situation.
Forty-eight hours of rioting later, Michigan
Governor George Romney declared a state of
emergency and called in both the National Guard
and the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions. While
the Airborne Divisions protected the wealthy
Pointes neighbourhoods, the Guardsmen were sent
to quell the riots with basic bootcamp training
and devastating military equipment. Concentrated
rifle barrages and tank support were called in
on residences at the mere suggestion of snipers
taking shots at first responders- but these “snipers”
often never existed. The Guardsmen, jumpy and
panicked, mistook military rifle fire from their
fellows several streets away as gunfire from innocent
civilians hiding from the carnage of the riots.
Even with United States soldiers on the streets
it still took days to stop the rioting and looting.
For almost a week, life in one of the largest cities in
America ground to a complete halt. Forty-three
people were killed, more than a thousand were
injured, over seven thousand were arrested, and
1,400 buildings were burned.
Rather than confronting the issue of racial
inequality within Detroit, many of its white
residents chose to flee for the safety of the suburbs.
Much of the original damage from the riots remains
untouched, even to this day.
Prohibition in the
Motor City
Not everyone in America was reduced
to drinking bathtub gin and moonshine
during the Roaring 20s. Gangsters and
crime syndicates could count on the Fresh
Stuff being funneled from Canada, shipped
straight through the Motor City and on
to the more lucrative cities of Chicago
and New York. When the ice on the
Great Lakes froze, bootleggers could load up
their vehicles in Windsor and drive across
the frozen river into Detroit, then begin
the process of distribution throughout the
Midwest.
Secret Speakeasies and Mob warehouses
were built into businesses that were
shuttered long ago, their walls painted in
wrathful blood from mob warfare, their
foundations steeped in the gluttony and lust
of their patrons. These nests of Darkness
have been forgotten by mortals, but the
Darkness remembers. Without the magic
to find the hidden lairs the police never
could, monster hunters have had to wage
vicious wars of attrition against waves of
Darkspawn emerging from a hidden nest or
burn down building after building until they
found the right one.
26
Coleman Young
“I suppose I’d like to be remembered
as the mayor who served in a period of
ongoing crisis and took some important
steps to keep the city together, but left
office with his work incomplete.”
— Coleman Young
No history of Detroit would be complete
without mentioning its longest-serving, most
controversial, and first African American mayor:
Coleman Young.
Coleman Young was elected in 1974 after
running on a platform of integrating the police
force and ending police brutality against the
predominantly African American citizens of
Detroit; a topical issue with the 1967 riot still
fresh in memory. During office Mayor Young
would build partnerships with industry to try
and retain Detroit’s economic base and opened up
employment opportunities at city hall to African
Americans. Years later Coleman would call police
reform his greatest accomplishment.
To understand what Mayor Young meant to
Detroit you have to first understand that what
divides his supporters from his opponents is not
what he did or what he said, but the motivations
they perceive behind his actions. The facts are
complicated and occasionally contradictory (as
twenty years worth of political office is sure to be)
but the perceptions of Mayor Young tend to one of
two polarized opposites: Either he was an African
American who was unfairly vilified for standing
up for his fellow African Americans in an era of
institutionalised racism, or he was a demagogue
who encouraged African American anger and used
white citizens as a scapegoat to hold onto power
and distract people from Detroit’s ailing economy.
This division can be seen as early as Coleman’s
inaugural speech in which he told criminals “It is
time to leave Detroit. Hit Eight Mile Road. And
I don’t give a damn if they are black or white, if
they wear Superfly suits or blue uniforms with silver
badges.” His supporters heard a promise to crack
down on crime and police brutality. His mostly-
suburbanite detractors heard in the words “Eight
Mile Road” (the border between Detroit and the
northern suburbs) a coded invitation for criminals
to invade the suburbs.
Regardless of what was going on in the privacy
of Coleman Young’s own head, Detroit’s decline
continued during the twenty years in which he
occupied the mayor’s office. Detroit’s longest-
serving mayor presided over a period of economic
decline, growing crime, and ever-widening divisions
between black and white, city and suburb, haves era looms large over Detroit today.
and have-nots. The legacy of the Coleman Young

bootstraps image of self reliance and determination.

Modern Your success or failure is the result of your own

Homesteading
American mythology enshrines the rugged27
individualist, the pull yourself up by your
efforts and no one else’s. If that was the story
of the average American, the story of the average The Return of the
Detroiter became one of rugged survival in the face
of borderline societal collapse. You lived or died Radiant
based on your own efforts.
Detroiters who owned their homes and refused
When the moon landing shattered the Darkness’
to leave (or who could not afford to) in the face
trap in the Dreamlands, the souls of the Radiant
of declining municipal services and employment
rushed back to the real world, and were quickly
prospects began fortifying themselves against the
reborn in mortal bodies. Those who emerged in
coming societal storm. Bars and boards covered
Detroit would grow up amidst the fallout from one
windows, doors were fixed with industrial strength
of the worst riots in United States history. Racial
locks, wealth was hidden in banks or (for the
tensions had always been strong in Detroit, but for
elderly who lived through the Great Depression)
many the riots were a tipping point. White families
their mattresses. Everyone who stayed knew to arm
who could afford to flee did so, and soon wealthy
themselves.
black families followed. Those left behind faced a
Drugs, gang wars, arson, murder, prostitution,
rising tide of poverty and drugs, while hampered
hunger, police corruption. Everything they
with reduced tax revenues and broken communities.
expected came in a wave that swept the entire city.
For decades after the Return, only a tiny
The worse things got, the more determined modern
handful of Radiant were able to Blossom in Detroit:
homesteaders became to survive, as invested effort
The unseen hand of C.O.R.D. pointed the Darkness
became a reason all unto itself. A man’s home is
to young Beacons before they could Blossom
his castle and if a castle has been held by his family
and buried their deaths among statistics of drug
for generations? The rest of the neighbourhood
overdoses and gang violence. Many who survived
can burn before he will abandon that much family
left for greener pastures after the city rebuffed their
history.
attempts to build alliances across the walls built
To this day there are entire city blocks of
by prejudice or fell when they tried to face the
abandoned homes or urban prairie where only one
Darkness alone. Those were dark days in Detroit,
inhabited structure remains. The cost of providing
and it seemed that for every Princess who joined
public services to a nearly empty block is painful
the cause, another fell to the Darkness or swore
for a city with a budget as red as Detroit’s, so
herself to the Twilight Queens. Hope was hard to
the city’s functioning bureaucrats will regularly
come by, and cynicism was rampant even among
send solicitors with offers to purchase their land,
the Nobility. Many allied themselves with the
demolish their home, and relinquish that block from
Queen of Storms, as they abandoned any Calling
municipal services so the resources can be devoted
other than ridding Detroit of its problems, one
to other areas. And these solicitors are regularly
monster at a time.
turned away empty handed by the residents who
Until relatively recently the Nobility of Detroit
fiercely hold onto their property and look down on
operated mostly underground, forced to fight only
newcomers who buy cheap land without fighting for
the symptoms of Taint without addressing the root
it.
causes within the community, for whenever they
These elderly survivors are in need of
would make progress C.O.R.D. would ensure that
hope and help. Too often, they’re isolated
soon things were worse than ever before. The
islands of humanity within the urban prairies.
Radiant hid from the Darkness’ prying eyes, and
Many are canny survivors who’ve avoided or
although their Seekers searched high and low for
defended themselves from the creatures that
their adversaries,C.O.R.D. has remained one step
prowl in the night, and the rest are just damn
ahead, and the Radiant remained hidden. Many
lucky. The Radiant have a respect for the
residents were afraid to even mow their lawns or
homesteaders’ emotional attachment to their homes
repair their homes, since their remaining neighbors
and sometimes convince a resident to let them use
might take such upkeep as a sign of wealth or extra
their house as a supply cache or safehouse. The
money and be all too glad to relieve them of it.
homemade fortifications surrounding the properties
The years wore on and the long war of
make a good foundation to lair magical defences
attrition took its toll. But just when the fight
atop.
seemed truly hopeless, the Radiant’s fortunes
turned: On July 18, 2013, Detroit filed for
the largest municipal bankruptcy in U.S. history
(the total debt was estimated at $18–20 billion).
The bankruptcy and it’s effects remain a highly

28
contentious and politically charged topic, but it’s
effects on the supernatural side of Detroit are less
controversial. A city hall firmly under C.O.R.D.’s
thumb found itself beholden to outsiders from
Lansing and Washington D.C. Those officials who
weren’t replaced were quickly put under intense
scrutiny while the bankruptcy courts poured
through the city’s balance books, uncovering dirty
secrets, bribes, and misappropriation of funds.
Detroit’s Mayoral office became a hotbed of
FBI investigation and the entire bureaucracy was
unprepared to deal with the fallout of turning over
the spreadsheets. In a headline-grabbing trial, the
FBI sent the city’s Mayor to jail, not eligible for
parole until 2037.
While C.O.R.D. was distracted by mortal
politics the Radiant’s intuition guided them to
strike. Without C.O.R.D. to provide leadership the
Darkspawn acted like, and were slaughtered like,
animals. Suddenly it became a real possibility that
Detroit’s future might someday be brighter than its
present (or at least less grim). A feeling of renewed
hope filled the air, and the Hopeful rode that feeling
for all it was worth. Freed from the need for secrecy,
they sent out a call to Princesses around the world:
if they could turn back the Darkness in Detroit, it
could be turned back anywhere. Immigrants, locals,
and strangers alike heeded the call, and together
they vowed that the Motor City would rise again
from its own ashes.
The Bankruptcy’s
Victims
The Radiant don’t know that it was
C.O.R.D. specifically who were weakened by
the bankruptcy, but they know something
happened to the Darkness once the EFM
moved into city hall. Nevertheless Nobles
would be wise to show empathy and
restraint when expressing gratitude to
bankruptcy, and the out of town officials
who put the screws to C.O.R.D. While
many citizens of Detroit and it’s suburbs
consider the bankruptcy as a fresh start
and a chance for Detroit to rebuild without
decades of debt and corruption hanging
like a millstone around her neck. Others
object to their elected representatives being
replaced with bureaucrats, and others have
29
suffered personally.
Many of the city’s public workers are
members of unions, and those unions
invested most of their retirement pensions
within Detroit’s Municipal Bonds, assuming
that the city would never be completely
destroyed, so they would retain value. In
the climactic hearing of the bankruptcy
court, the judge ruled that these retirement
pensions and Bonds would be liquidated as
part of the process, the retirees receiving
literal pennies on the dollar. With one bang
of a gavel, an entire generation has seen its
plans for living their golden years crumble
into dust and poverty.
The Opioid Crisis
If crack is the drug of choice for African
Americans within Detroit city limits then opioids
and painkillers serve the same purpose north of the
I-696 freeway. In the 90s pharmaceutical companies
pushed to increase the provision and potency
of painkillers. This combined with insurance
companies reluctance to pay for expensive physical
therapies when a cheap pill is on offer resulted in an
epidemic of addictions; the government responded
by cracking down on corrupt doctors, which forced
addicts to turn to dealers, and often theft, to feed
their habits.
The Opioid Crisis’ origins in pharmacies and
doctor’s offices meant that prescription drugs -
no less addictive or destructive than powder sold
on the street corner - began to spread to a
part of Detroit that had remained mostly clean
of narcotics: the middle class suburbs. The
economic woes, stress, and fraying social fabric
that can lead a man to drugs did not respect the
boundary between city and suburb; while a doctor’s
prescription allowed opioids to travel freely through
the police checkpoints along 11 Mile Road and
gave the suburban addict a justification to maintain
his self proclaimed superiority to addicts on street
drugs.
The taint created by addiction and the gangs
that fed it festered into a vicious battle between
monsters and the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance.
Strength in battle cannot fix the underlying socio-
economic causes making the war a delaying action
at best. Whole neighbourhoods such as Fraser and
Roseville have been abandoned by civic minded
hunters (and civic minded civilians) leaving them
as little more than narco states awash with crystal
meth labs, opioid pushers, and crooked cops while
other neighbourhoods like Warren and Eastpoint
remain the epicenter of a slow war of attrition,
with EMTs regularly wheeling overdose victims out
the front doors of perfectly kept brick ranch homes
while the neighbors look on in horror.
30
Even as the economy recovered from the great
crash of 2008 and jobs returned to the suburbs
the drugs remained, a source of fear and misery
that Detroit’s suburbanites once believed could not
touch them.
 Chapter 2: Lay of
the Land
“Most of the blight in Detroit is just that, blight. Away from the skyscrapers and the unbelievably vast
industrial structures, back down at eye level, the quotidian monotony of the blasted and empty
storefronts quickly becomes numbing, even though the scale can be unmooring. Some buildings have been
picked clean as skulls by thieves, others left gaping and ravaged in a way that made you feel as if you
were violating someone’s privacy by peering inside, somehow committing an act of voyeuristic sin, like
a Peeping Tom catching a glimpse up a skirt.”
—Mark Binelli, Detroit City Is the Place to Be

Detroit is located in the southeastern corner of
the “mitten” of Michigan’s lower peninsula, on the
shores of the Detroit River, which connects Lake St.
Clair and Lake Erie. Detroit is the seat of Wayne
County, and encompasses 138.7 square miles [360
km2] , making it large enough to contain all of
Boston, San Francisco, and Manhattan at once.
Detroit completely envelops the twin enclaves of
Highland Park and Hamtramck. The first is so poor
that Detroit refuses incorporate it into the larger

31
city, the second is so affluent that it resists similar
efforts for fear of being dragged down by Detroit’s
financial problems and corruption.
The Detroit River acts as the city’s southern
border and major artery of trade, helping to ferry
ships from Wisconsin and Chicago to the Atlantic
Ocean and back again. In past centuries, several
of the numerous small islands which dot the river
were used for dueling, cockfighting, and as hideouts
for smugglers, but most are now public parkland
(especially Belle Isle, the largest island park in the
United States).
Detroit’s terrain is mostly flatlands near the
river, which fades gradually into rolling hills as you
go further inland. Most freeways in the city are
sunken, so it’s easy to drive all the way from the
suburbs to downtown and back without actually
seeing a single blighted building. While this does
help encourage tourism, it also makes it easy for
politicians to pretend that the city is doing much
better than it actually is.
32
Detroit
Neighbourhoods
Detroiters usually describe themselves in terms of
which side of Woodward Avenue they live or grew
up on. East Siders and West Siders both religiously
avoid crossing Woodward if they can help it, saying
that “those motherfuckers are crazy over there”.
The East Side was the first part of the city to
be settled, by French habitants in the early 1700s.
As a result, the streets of the East Side tend to be
narrower and change direction haphazardly, like an
Old World city. The West Side was incorporated
much later, and its streets tend to be wider,
straighter, and conform more closely to the grid-
system beloved by city planners. The East Side
tends to be less well-off than the West, though
it is home to more historic buildings and major
landmarks.
• Downtown – The heart of the city, and its
main business district. Filled with Art Deco
skyscrapers, movie-palaces of the Roaring
Twenties, and the majority of the city’s
oldest structures (including a few churches
which served as stops on the Underground
Railroad).
• Greektown – A part of Downtown, and
a popular restaurant-and-entertainment
district. Few Greeks live there anymore, but
many of the restaurants are still owned by
old Greek families. The district is home to
several casinos, the product of a brief attempt
to turn Detroit into a Vegas of the Midwest.
The venture failed. Most of the patrons who
visit the casinos are elderly retirees gambling
away their social security checks.
• East Side – Detroit’s older half often suffers
from aging infrastructure and poor urban
planning, but it also contains the city’s most
well-to-do waterfront properties and historic
buildings.
• West Side – Since it was settled later than
the East Side, the streets here are wider
and more gridlike. Much of the most severe
depopulation has happened here: in some
neighbourhoods, you can count the (intact)
houses on two hands.
• Hamtramck – Formerly nicknamed
“Poletown,” this enclave within the City
of Detroit is now America’s first Muslim-
majority city. Most storefronts and
billboards (and even some of the street
signs) are written in Arabic script. The
neighbourhood is experiencing a small rebirth
and is resisting political pressure to be folded
into Detroit, a move the locals believe would
wipe out their hard-earned gains in property
value and public image.
• Highland Park – Sometimes called “the
Detroit of Detroit,” because of its spectacular
33
levels of blight and poverty. This city
regularly requests to be legally dissolved and
incorporated into Detroit City. Detroit’s
functioning bureaucrats, in perhaps their
only internal victory over C.O.R.D., have
been unwilling to absorb this enclave
for fear of taking responsibility for even
more desperately-poor people and blighted
neighbourhoods than it already has.
• Midtown/New Center – The world’s first
“edge city” is home to several major bastions
of culture: the Detroit Institute of Arts,
the Detroit Public Library, the Museum
of African American History, and Wayne
State University’s main campus The city’s
most advanced medical facility, Henry Ford
Hospital, is also found here.
• Cass Corridor – Home to numerous addicts,
winos, and vagrants, but also (thanks to
the low cost of housing) most of the city’s
bohemian artists and musicians.
• Mexicantown – known for colourful
buildings, murals, and a thriving hospitality
industry. This southwestern Detroit
neighbourhood has been the centre of
Detroit’s Hispanic community (it is no
longer specifically Mexican) since 1920
when immigrants arrived seeking factory
jobs and refuge from the Mexican
Revolution. Ambassador Bridge starts in
the neighbourhood; making Mexicantown the
first port of call for many arriving Nobles.
• Corktown – Being founded in 1840 by Irish
immigrants fleeing the potato famine makes
Corktown Detroit’s oldest neighbourhood.
Though it was heavily damged by urban
renewal in the 1960s it has undergone a
renewal in the 2000s. Corktown has not been
a specifically Irish district since the 1890s. It
is also the home of Detroit’s iconic Michigan
Central Station.
 The Ossian Sweet House
Doctor Ossian Sweet was a well-to-do black man, educated in Medicine at Howard University in
Washington D.C. He moved to Detroit during the Great Migration and initially was forced to
live in the ghetto of Black Bottom. He operated a modest practice and built up some wealth,
but grew dissatisfied with the high rent and poor living conditions in the ghetto. Doctor Sweet
decided he wanted his own piece of the American Dream like any citizen would- he bought a
home in a white neighbourhood and arranged for nine other friends and family members to help
him with the moving process and provide some security. On moving day only insults and threats
were traded between the white mob that gathered and the Sweets- until stones were thrown by
local kids. Fearing the mob was attacking, the Sweets responded with gunfire, killing one of the
white onlookers. The mob dispersed and everyone inside the home was arrested and charged with
murder.
The resulting trial would have been cut and dry- 10 black men being tried by all white juries.
Nothing more than a formal lynching. But Attorney Clarence Darrow, fresh from his legal defeat
(but publicity victory) in the Scopes Monkey Trial, came to Doctor Sweet’s defense. He argued
that Sweet was simply a man defending his home, that he was entitled to his own safety, and that
the mob had no business being there in the first place. Together with the NAACP’s legal team,
Darrow did the impossible. Every single black man was exonerated by their all white juries.
That should have been the happy ending Doctor Sweet deserved, but his fortunes deteriorated
rapidly from there. His wife passed away from tuberculosis. His brother Henry, who likely saved
Ossian’s life from the mob, soon followed her. Sweet was saddled with debts from the mortgage
company and, when he made his last payment on the property in 1950, he sold the building
and moved into a makeshift apartment above his medical practice. Doctor Ossian Sweet died on
March 20th, 1960 of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

these things to Detroiters- and more. One of the

Key Locations,
Detroit
Ambassador Bridge – The busiest international
border crossing in North America in terms of trade
volume, and it’s only four lanes wide; backups can
last for hours. All crossings in either direction
require a valid passport or a special Enhanced
Driver’s License for Michigan residents. The bridge
is literally a privately owned structure, feeding the
pockets of a single billionaire family through its
toll crossings. Both the United States and Canada
have been fighting this monopoly for years, with
the Billionaire Manuel “Manny” Moroun holding
the bridge in a death grip and using his wealth to
prevent any competing structures from being built.
Belle Isle – An old pig farm for the French,
providing them with food to prevent starvation.
The personal estate of one of the United States’ few
victorious generals in the War of 1812. A home for
wildlife with nowhere else to go as the modern world
devoured the forests around Detroit. A Marine
training ground to prepare American soldiers for
Pacific Island invasions. Belle Isle has been all of
few truly beautiful places remaining in Detroit, the
largest island park in the United States is home to a
famous rose-garden, a greenhouse of exotic plants,
and the Belle Isle Aquarium. At 982 acres, it is
officially larger than New York City’s Central Park
and is only accessible by boat to a small Marina,
or by car via a single bridge.
Campus Martius Park – The literal center
of the city of Detroit, just recently rediscovered in
old architect sketches. All the east-west running
“mile” roads (8 Mile, 9 Mile, etc) are named for
their distance from this point, situated at the center
of the city’s main hub, almost on the same location
as the original Fort Pontchartrain. The “park”
is barely larger than an acre, resembling nothing
of the sort. Its name in Latin means “Field of
Mars”, where Roman heroes walked. Today it is
host to bureaucrats and office analysts that eat
their lunches at its tables and benches, while the
homeless sleep here at night.
Comerica Park (Tiger Stadium) – If there’s
one thing that all Detroiters can agree on, it’s their
shared love of baseball in general and the Tigers
in particular. Despite the fact the team hasn’t

34
won a World Series since 1984, Opening Day is
greeted with universal fanfare by every member
of the Metro Area. The current stadium was
built by Comerica Bank before they moved their
corporate headquarters from Detroit to Dallas,
Texas. Comerica Park’s high walls offer the
mostly suburban patrons a lovely view of the city’s
skyscrapers while blocking them from ever present
blight and crime. Ticket scalpers and beggars line
the walkways leading up to the gates every game
day while police patrol the parking lots to prevent
auto thefts.
Detroit Institute of Arts – A beacon of
culture and beauty for well over a century. Much
of its collection (including priceless works by Monet
and Picasso) is currently being sized-up for the
auction block, to help pay off the city’s staggering
debts. The DIA contains not just paintings, but
ancient artifacts purchased and donated when the
city was a wealthier place. A dragon from the
Babylonian Gates of Ishtar, one of only a tiny
handful left in the world, is on display here, and
many other artifacts are held behind closed doors.
Detroit Salt Mine – Though it runs more
than a thousand feet beneath the city streets,
the mine now covers more than 1,500 acres. It’s
said that if a serious earthquake ever hit Detroit,
a sizable chunk of Dearborn would simply be
swallowed by the earth along with the mine’s closest
neighbor: a major railway depot which services the
Ford Rouge Plant.
Detroit-Windsor Tunnel – This long, dimly-
lit tunnel, which runs for almost a mile beneath
the Detroit River, is the second busiest crossing
between the United States and Canada. Try not
to think about the cold water flowing just above
and around you while you’re driving through it. Or
what would happen if the ventilation system gave
out. Just like the bridge, all crossings in either
direction require a valid passport.
Fort Wayne – A colonial-era fort built on
the site of several Indian burial mounds (yes,
really). The fort’s shape, that of a squared, four-
pointed star, may have been selected to enhance the
site’s occult resonance or because it was the most
effective defensive design of its day; a Princess could
ask the many ghosts which is true. Most of the walls
have fallen into disrepair and the old barracks are
crumbling into ruin. Supernatural creatures could
easily find hundreds of secure locations to hide until
dusk.
Heidelberg Project – Artist Tyree Guyton’s
multi-decade experimental art project, in which
he turns abandoned houses into public works of
art using only whimsical paint-jobs (e.g., polka-
dots) and found objects (stuffed animals, old
35
shoes). Somewhat unpopular with its neighbors,
who consider it an eyesore and an attractive
nuisance; several of the installations have recently
been targeted by arsonists.
John K. King Used & Rare Books – With
tens of thousands of linear feet of shelving which
spans four warehouse-sized floors, this is one of
the largest and oldest used bookstores in America
(and remains steadfastly uncomputerized). The
rare book room contains numerous titles which may
appeal to clients with more esoteric tastes.
Manoogian Mansion – The official residence
of the Mayor of Detroit. Marred by associations
with a party thrown there in 2002 by then Mayor
Kwame Kilpatrick during which his wife attacked
several exotic dancers, one of whom was later
found murdered with a .40 calibre Glock pistol
(the standard-issue weapon of the Detroit Police
Department). The Mayor’s office claimed there
was no evidence of a party ever taking place, but
Internal Affairs of the DPD swore to its existence
and several EMTs came forward to also offer
testimony under oath that they treated the dancers
Kwame’s wife assaulted. Despite this testimony,
the official investigation by the Michigan State
Police was cut short. Mayor Kilpatrick was later
charged on eight felony counts unrelated to the
party and murder, including (but not limited to)
perjury, official misconduct, and obstruction of
justice. He plead guilty and will be eligible for
parole on August 1st, 2037.
Masonic Temple – The cornerstone of this
building, the largest Masonic temple in the world,
was laid on Thanksgiving Day in 1926, using
the same trowel that George Washington used
to lay the cornerstone of the National Capitol.
Constructed in the Gothic style, rather than the
typical Greek or Egyptian.
Michigan Central Station – Once the tallest
train station in the world, now a festering and
highly-public symbol of the loss of Detroit’s
greatness and a constant focus of efforts to restore
the blighted structure to its former splendour (or
at least prevent its demolition). In it’s heyday this
station saw 200 trains leave its platforms every day
while over 3,000 individuals worked in the attached
office tower. The station remained in operation
until 1988 when Amtrak deemed its passenger lines
obsolete. Freight cars will still roll through on the
lines, but no locomotive stops here. City officials
never got around to demolishing the building, nor
could they ever dream of renovation. It was left to
rot on its own, hopefully to collapse under its own
weight. The station has been given a proverbial
reprieve from the governor now that Hollywood
has discovered that it makes a perfect ”Generic
Urban Ruin” set. Now that Hollywood has largely
packed up and left, the Ford Motor Company has
purchased the office building with the intention of
renovating it into a modern office suite. It remains
to be seen if the structure is sound enough to handle
anything more than the occasional film crew.
Packard Automotive Plant – Perhaps the
most famous symbol of Detroit’s decay. Built with
cutting edge techniques and materials (by early
1910s standards) this complex could employ 30,000
workers in the production of luxury automobiles.
After it closed in the Fifties several different tenants
attempted to make use of the Packard Plant. In
1999 the City forced the tenants out with the goal
of demolishing the ageing structure. While legal
battles raged in court over the property’s ownership
the plant stood empty, defenseless against the
scrappers who ravaged the entire structure within
a few short years. Today it’s used as a haunting
ground for urban explorers, a set for Hollywood
movies and music videos, and a backdrop for
wedding photographs for suburban rich-kid brides
and grooms.
Renaissance Centre – Although this “riot-
proof” complex was intended to reinvigorate
Detroit’s urban centre, General Motors’ five-
towered headquarters amounts to a walled city-
within-a-city. Contains its own small police station
(with a full sized one about a hundred yards down
the street), a pharmacy, a four-star hotel, multi
screen movie theater, a small shopping mall, and
luxury restaurants on the top floor overlooking the
Detroit River. When GM nearly folded in 2009,
Detroiters were sent into a panic that this last
bastion of private investment would fold with them.
36
Washington eventually came to GM’s rescue, but
the city is now aware that they’ve put almost all
their tax revenue into this one basket...
Rouge Plant – Henry Ford’s original
automobile assembly complex. At its peak, it
employed more than 10,000 workers every day,
in three shifts. Today most of its workers are
robots and technicians responsible for their upkeep.
Only the Ford F-150 truck is still produced here.
Now the plant is treated as a tourist attraction,
where visitors can come and see a facade of
America’s Industrial Might amidst the ruin of what
it has actually turned into. Zug Island – This
heavily industrialized human-made island is the
most polluted ZIP code in Michigan, according
to the EPA. Zug Island is home to “sizeable
and sometimes troublesome” populations of rats,
seagulls, and feral cats. Nearby residents are
plagued by strange emanations from the island:
unidentified smells which are strong enough to
cause dry heaves; unusually high rates of asthma
and cancer; and a sparkly, omnipresent dust which
settles over every surface. In 2011, the island was
identified by Canadian scientists as the source of
mysterious subterranean vibrations – known as
“the Windsor Hum” – that have been felt up to
50 miles (80 km) away. Despite numerous requests
by Canadian scientists to examine the site, Zug
Island remains closed to the public by order of the
Department of Homeland Security.
The Urban Prairie
 Approximately one-third of Detroit’s land has
gone unused and un-maintained for so long that
it has reverted from brownfield to “urban prairie”.
These open green spaces are home to a surprising
variety of wildlife, including raccoons, red-tailed
hawks, peregrine falcons, foxes, ducks, Canada
geese, groundhogs, snakes, pheasants, white-tailed
deer, coyotes, beavers, and even the occasional
bear.
On the urban prairie, characters with knowledge
of wildcraft and Legno Charms get a chance to
shine, whether they’re hunting food for the family
table, hiding from the law, or tracking down
Darkspawn. Players can use dots in Survival for
actions such as hiding or moving unseen, moving
silently, finding shelter, or hunting. Furthermore,
the presence of urban prairie provides more uses for
the Animal Ken skill and Legno Charms than one
might normally find in an urban environment.
37
Demographics
Detroit is the poster child for white flight. In
the city of Detroit over 81% of the population are
African American with just over 10% being white.
The Hispanic community is almost as large as the
White community at 6.8%; with the remaining
population being Asian, Middle Eastern, or Native
American. Only 2.2% of Detroit’s city responded
as being mixed race.
In contrast Metro Detroit – a loose term which
includes the suburbs and surrounding cities close
enough for people to make a daily commute to
Detroit – is predominantly White at 70.1%, with
African Americans comprising only 22.8%. Asians
make up 3.3%, a significant increase over 1.1% in
Detroit. The only group to comprise a similar
percentage in both the city of Detroit and Metro
Detroit are Hispanics, who comprise 6.2% of Metro
Detroit.
Today Detroit remains a deeply segregated city.
 The Detroit Metro area contains two major
The Urban Sprawl rivers and their associated watersheds: the Rouge
and the Ecorse. It also includes seven “ghost
Detroit is the poster child of white flight: many waters” (waterways which have been partially or
newcomers are stunned at how abruptly the sprawl entirely buried under man-made infrastructure, but
ends and the ghetto begins once you cross 8 Mile which continue to flow underground), including
Road. It has been compared with crossing the Baby Creek in Delray, May Creek beneath
border between the United States and Mexico, only Corktown, Bloody Run Creek under the Near East
in this case the southern side of the border is eerily Side, and Savoyard Creek which winds beneath
empty, the only sounds heard being the barking of Downtown’s skyscrapers and Cobo Hall.
wild dogs, the occasional passing car, and gunfire.

Detroit's Innocents
For all the struggle that Detroit’s adults are forced to go through in their daily lives, their children
have it no better - unlike adults, they have far less agency to decide their own daily lives and
fates. The following are anecdotal facts from an ER Nurse at Detroit Children’s Hospital. They
have not been embellished for the sake of making the setting better fit the World of Darkness.
“We regularly see kids come in as victims of gang-related drive by shootings - not daily or
weekly, but it happens a lot. They aren’t the targets but are related to the target in some way-
usually the hit’s brother or sister playing in the living room when the other gang rolls up. Detroit
schools are horrible at educating but they provide better food and air conditioning or heat than
most of the students will get at home.
“Most of the chronic diseases we treat are related to diabetes and obesity- people here can’t
afford fresh fruit, vegetables, or protein. They live off of empty calories- potato chips, Hostess
cakes and candy bought from the closest liquor store. A two-liter of Pepsi costs $1.30, so parents
give them that instead of bottled water, juice or milk which can cost three times as much. You
can fill your belly for less than three bucks, but it kills you by inches. Urban farms are starting

38
 to spring up to fill this nutrition gap, but not enough of ‘em and not fast enough.
“Drug abuse and signs of sexual abuse are especially prevalent among homeless LGBT youth.
We’ve got a macho working class culture and conservative Catholic and Baptist congregations in
the city, so coming out in any way often means you’ll be thrown out by your family. Religious
homeless shelters can be even worse for the kid than home life if they can’t pass as straight. This
doesn’t happen as much in the suburbs, but those hospitals deal with suicide attempts by LGBT
kids rather than the effects of homelessness. There’s stigma associated with throwing out your
kid there, but there’s also stigma about ‘what the neighbors will think’ if your son or daughter is
in the gay community. They’re in limbo: physically safe but socially ostracized.”

legitimate businesses are mom-and-pop stores that

Major Suburbs
Dearborn/Dearborn Heights – Home to the
world’s largest Arabic population outside of the
Middle East, the headquarters of the Ford
Motor Company, and the Henry Ford Museum
of American Innovation and Greenfield Village
(the largest indoor-outdoor museum complex in
the United States). Probably the only place
in the United States where the Mosques equal
or outnumber the churches. Many immigrants
from the Middle East settle along the border
with Detroit knowing that the city is in such
desperate shape, if only because they are relatively
safe from racism and Islamophobia in Dearborn
(besides, when you leave the most dangerous areas
of the Middle East, even Detroit might look good
by comparison). Iraqi Christians and Muslims,
Lebanese fleeing conflicts with Israel, and now
Syrian refugees fleeing Civil War and I.S.I.S. have
made up more recent arrivals. Many of the Arabic
communities know that there would be severe
consequences if any sort of armed, organized Arabic
group appeared on the news, and for this reason
they rely on Radiant for protection rather than
forming their own Hunter cells.
Downriver – “Crap floats, and always
downriver.” This unofficial conglomeration of more
than a dozen smaller cities and townships south
of Detroit along the western shore of the Detroit
River is known for abandoned industrial spaces,
its state of general disrepair, the crassness of
its populace, and for its obnoxious “white trash”
teenagers (many of whom identify as thugs or
Juggalos).
Fraser - A small blue collar suburb just east
of Warren, Fraser is rapidly becoming a blight to
rival Detroit north of I-696. The city has been
completely overtaken by the opioid epidemic, its
police department trying and failing to prevent it
from becoming a miniature Narco-state, employing
more and more harsh tactics to shut down the
pill mills and meth labs. Most of the remaining
are perpetually on the verge of closure, and the few
major automotive supply factories still operating
within city limits are becoming fortified enclaves
behind spiked iron fences, guard shacks, and barbed
wire.
The Grosse Pointes – Detroit’s wealthy
eastern suburbs, largely untouched by blight.
CEOs and other bigwigs have built their lakefront
homes here for three generations. While all of
Detroit was touched by the 12th Street Riot,
the Pointes were protected by Governor George
Romney when he deployed members of the 82nd
and 101st Airborne divisions, battle hardened from
their time in Vietnam, to keep the wealthy residents
safe. Anyone trying to cross the border in a vehicle
more than three years old will promptly be pulled
over for a Driving While Black, or a busted tail light
if they happen to be white. C.O.R.D. members
with a taste for luxury often settle here.
Inkster – Because black workers in Henry
Ford’s factories were legally barred from living in
Detroit, many of them chose to settle here, just
outside city limits. As a result, today Inkster is
one of the few Detroit suburbs whose population is
majority African-American.
River Rouge – Formerly a Native American
burial ground. Home of Henry Ford’s Rouge Plant,
which at its peak employed more than 10,000
workers each day. Today it is more of a tourist
destination, where visitors can see the ghost of
America’s manufacturing industry for themselves.
Roseville - The suburb of Fraser may be on
the downward spiral to blight, but its residents
still have some money to their name- because they
push their narcotics on the residents of Roseville.
Once a thriving city filled with small auto part
factories, NAFTA has ensured that every one of
those businesses has been shuttered and closed.
EMTs are always busy removing victims of overdose
and suicide from the homes here. And while
Fraser’s police are trying to tamp down on the
drug trade, Roseville’s seem to have given in to the
corruption, cutting deals on the side and turning

39
blind eyes.
Royal Oak – An upbeat, gentrified northern
suburb. Home of the Detroit Zoo and the tech-
startups that don’t want to deal with Detroit’s
real estate issues. Known for its liberal policies
and atmosphere, most young people in the Metro
Detroit area realize Royal Oak is the closest they’ll
come to experiencing more trendy places like
Seattle or New York City. Royal Oak’s downtown
area hosts feminist friendly sex shops, hipster
record stores, suburban Yoga studios, and fad-
diet-of-the-year restaurants. Well-to-do without
having the oppressive property values of the Grosse
Pointes, most homeowners are doctors or lawyers.
Only a few private schools in the state can rival
Royal Oak’s public schools in terms of quality.
Ferndale – Due to rising property values, those
who can’t afford to set up a home or business in
Royal Oak are heading south to the neighboring
small city of Ferndale - the beating heart of
Detroit’s LGBT community. A place once known
as a safe oasis for this marginalized group is being
gentrified with craft breweries, modern mead halls,
and tech startups; while the locals respect the
newcomers for continuing the city’s tradition of
being gay-friendly with proudly displayed rainbow
flags in shop windows, there are still rising tensions
that come with every gentrification project. Any
LGBTQ+ Nobles, or their friends, will be familiar
with the Affirmations community center- a location
that offers counseling, free HIV testing, group
therapy, transition assistance, a youth center for
kids in schools where they might be vulnerable to
violence, and networking events for Metro Detroit’s
LGBT community. Local 911 Members steer clear
of Ferndale, fearing they’ll be tarred as “one of the
40
queers” by their Blue Collar coworkers if they do
anything more than drive through it on their way
to Royal Oak. Lost Boys living life on the down
low will refrain from fighting here for fear of being
outed. Even the Neighbourhood Watch who make
their homes in Ferndale are at arm’s length from the
wider Compact. Only the Radiant and C.O.R.D.
have a significant local presence. The Radiant came
to protect Ferndale because nobody else would, and
they relate to the young and optimistic community.
C.O.R.D.’s agents in Ferndale stay in deep cover.
Hidden behind rainbow flags they take advantage
of Detroit’s treatment of the LGBT community to
manipulate the relationship between Ferndale and
Detroit, but as of yet Tainting Ferndale is not a
priority.
Warren – Eminem’s hometown isn’t as bad as
it looked in 8 Mile. It mainly consists of urban
sprawl, single-story ranch homes, and strip malls.
Simply put, Warren is notorious for being a bland
imitation of your Standard American Suburbia.
Nothing really goes wrong here, but that’s because
nothing happens here. There is no downtown, no
nightlife aside from a few blue collar bars, and no
fun to be had. It’s an almost farcical depiction
of what Detroit could be if nothing had ever gone
wrong. The area malls were once the heart of the
city but those are closing down with the advent
of Internet shopping. Warren is the traditional
home to Blue Collar/middle manager families just
starting out, and retirees living out their golden
years. You’re either raised in Warren or you die in
Warren. The main draws to this place are the many
automotive plants, a US Army Tank Production
facility, and the GM Tech Center- an unofficial
headquarters for the company.
Windsor, Ontario Windsor at a Glance
Economy:
Caesars Windsor Casino and the lower drinking age
(19) pull in a lot of teens and young adults from
Michigan and Ohio, but “the City of Roses” retains
When Fort Detroit was ceded to the Americans a small-town feel. Many Windsorites commute
after the end of the American Revolution, the town daily across the Ambassador Bridge, to jobs in
of Windsor sprang up across the river, composed of Detroit (or, more often, its suburbs). Much of
French and English subjects who wished to remain Windsor’s tourism industry involves Americans
under British rule. The city expanded rapidly in seeking to purchase what they cannot legally obtain
the mid-1850s, its new growth fueled by rail- and in the States, such as Cuban cigars and rum, cheap
river-trade. prescription drugs, and absinthe.
Modern-day Windsor is much smaller than
Detroit, with fewer than 211,000 residents.
Government:
Windsor’s population is, on average, about ten
years older than Detroit’s, but its’ bar scene Windsor is divided into ten wards, each represented
averages about ten years younger, thanks largely by a councillor. Windsor is virtually free of
to American teenagers sneaking across the river for violent crime, in part because many weapons
underage drinking and gambling. Some of these are prohibited from entering Canada, including
teens say that Windsor is like Detroit’s “fun uncle” (but not limited to) all firearms, most tasers,
who invites all the local kids to his lake house for pepper spray, switchblades, brass knuckles, most
crazy parties on the weekend; but as you get older, crossbows, nunchaku, shuriken, spiked wristbands,
you realize that having wild parties and getting blowguns, butterfly knives, morningstars, and
wasted is all he ever does. many other forms of weaponry.

41
Population: EDDE’s Graffiti Alley – This huge
installation of surreal and vivid imagery amounts to
210,890 in 2011, almost one-fifth of whom were born a massive, constantly-evolving, multi-artist mural.
outside of Canada, and speak languages such as Sometimes, the people and animals depicted in
Québécois French, Arabic, and Italian. In contrast the murals seem to move, or to whisper terrible,
to Detroit Windsor is a majority white city, with impossible secrets, or simply watch unblinkingly as
72% of the population identifying as white. Arabs you go by. And who can tell what those graffiti
make up Windsor’s largest minority group at 7.4%. tags are supposed to say?
Only 4.9% of Windsor are black, ahead of the Mackenzie Hall – This former courthouse and
4.4% from a south Asian background and 3.4% of prison, the site of many contentious trials and
Chinese citizens. executions, is like many sites of executions it is
said to be haunted. Market Square – This indoor
Media and Culture: farmers’ market and flea mart is has fallen on hard
Most Windsorites get their news from The Windsor times in the last ten years: most of the vendors are
Star, The Windsor Independent, or CBC Radio bored or surly, and most of the food (which never
2. The city boasts several well-maintained parks tastes very good) is flown in from afar despite being
and numerous historic buildings, as well as the close to some of the richest farmland in Canada.
University of Windsor. Each summer, Windsor and Odette Sculpture Park – This riverfront
Detroit honor Canada Day and the Fourth of July sculpture park, nearly three miles in length, helps
with a joint fireworks display launched from a barge keep Detroit’s Taint from bleeding across the
in the middle of the Detroit River. river, like a metaphysical bulwark against despair,
countering Detroit’s bad energy with whimsy and
good feng shui (so to speak).
Key Locations, Willistead Manor – Built in 1906 by the heir
to Hiram Walker’s distilling fortune and named
Windsor after the owner’s dead son, this 36-room mansion
is situated amidst a 15-acre park. The house,
especially the basement, is said to be haunted.
Art Gallery of Windsor – As one of Ontario’s
Windsor International Airport – Since
most significant collections of Canadian art and one
Windsor is a safe location for a newly arriving
of the top galleries in the entire Detroit-Windsor
Radiant to meet a local guide, to say nothing
corridor, this stately modern museum houses art
of WIA being closer to Detroit than the much
and artifacts from all across Canadian territory and
larger Detroit Metro Airport to the west, this small
history.
airstrip is the main point-of-entry for Princesses
Assumption Church – Originally established
arriving in the region.
as ”The Mission of Our Lady of the Assumption
among the Hurons in Detroit” in 1728 by the
Jesuits, this ornate cathedral has been closed since
2014, due to its badly deteriorated condition – The Duchy of
though the diocese says it has plans to reopen the
cathedral “soon”. The diocese has never been able Windsor
to satisfactorily explain the flickering lights which
appear inside the locked and boarded-up church As a city of 200,000 souls, with a far lower
every year at Candlemas. mortality rate, Windsor naturally has a Noble
Caesars Windsor – When your grandma goes population of its own. Much of the Radiant
to Canada to buy her cheaper prescriptions, she’ll population in the city is found in the University of
likely spend the money she saved at the craps Windsor, and is currently led by Princess Victoria
table here. While Detroit’s casinos were still under Jones of Diamonds and Princess Courtney Chen of
construction/renovation, this location settled into Spades: Victoria is a tenured professor researching
its niche where it continues to thrive. pharmaceuticals and helps Noble students balance
Capitol Theatre – This Art Deco grande their studies with their other activities. Courtney
dame of Ontarian screen- and stagecraft is has no official position, mundane or Noble, but she
the beating heart of Windsor’s arts community. knows everyone and everyone knows she hosts the
Though the ornate theatre is showing its age, it best parties. She’ll also be graduating this year, the
still plays host to both the Windsor Symphony competition to replace her is fierce but friendly.
Orchestra and the Windsor International Film The Radiant Campaign has been recruiting
Festival. from Windsor since the beginning. A fair number

42
of Detroit’s Nobility commute from across the
river — either by taking Ambassador bridge
or by flying, walking or swimming across the
river, swimming is not recommended for mortals
— or just tell their parents they’re students in
Windsor. Windsor also has more Menders than
the Champion-heavy population of Detroit, making
trips to the university the Radiant Campaign’s
equivalent of cheap Canadian pharmacies. The
safe and friendly environment is also popular with
Princesses taking a short break to recharge their
Wisps and Willpower, though this habit is not
always popular with Detroiters, who doubt the
commitment of anyone who wants to leave the city
every time things get tough.
43
Storytelling
Windsor
Like all cities in the Chronicles of Darkness,
Windsor has its fair share of monsters and tragedy,
but at heart Windsor is a functioning city: its
government is stable, its economy provides enough
jobs for everyone, and its monsters are kept in check
by Hunters, Princesses, and self-policing. It is, both
literally and metaphorically, a different country
from Detroit.
Storytellers should downplay the extent to
which the Windsor of the World of Darkness
is worse than reality in order to emphasise this
contrast. When players are in Windsor, play up its
feeling of warmth and comfort, but also emphasize
how little the citizens of Windsor know, or want to
know, about what happens just across the river.
 Chapter 3: Pillars
of the Community
“Economic and racial inequality constrain individual and family choices. They set the limits of human
agency. Within the bounds of the possible, individuals and families resist, adapt, or succumb.”
—Thomas J. Sugrue, The Origins of the Urban Crisis: Race and Inequality in Postwar Detroit

the Campaign was officially founded), The Radiant

The Radiant Campaign is the youngest group fighting the Light’s
cause in Detroit. Despite this they are the most
Campaign powerful, for the obvious reason that many of their
members have potent and diverse magic at their
At only a few months old (though some members
have been fighting for Detroit since long before
44
fingertips and a cause worth fighting for.
Since their arrival, the Campaign has acquired
influence and membership at a phenomenal
rate, recruiting supporters and informants in
activist groups, charitable institutions, municipal
government, law enforcement, and other relevant
institutions and entirely absorbing several groups
of Hunters. Their Noble membership draws from
volunteers from all across the United States and
beyond. While the Campaign has no official
political positions other than fighting the Darkness
heavy recruitment from charities combined with the
the Nobility’s youth has given the Campaign a left
wing and progressive slant.
As a bold opening move the Campaign
launched coordinated attacks on Tainted locations
in and around the city’s schools, slaughtering the
Darkspawn with overwhelming magical power, and
showing the city’s most vulnerable inhabitants they
had new protectors; it was a promise that things
will change now that the Campaign’s banner had
been raised. With this done the campaign began
to spread across Detroit as Princesses from across
America teamed up with their local peers and
settled into their new friends’ neighbourhood.
This paring system exists to ease culture shock.
A Noble from San Francisco, Tokyo, or New York
would know how to fight the Darkness but few
would grasp the sheer magnitude of how Detroit’s
socio-economic issues strengthened the Taint and
how those issues would hinder their attempts to
recruit supporters. The shock was especially bad
for Princesses who arrived to volunteer in the city’s
philanthropic institutions; the collapse of social
services and government created an environment
completely alien to everyone without experience in
developing nations. Princesses expecting to provide
advanced medical care when mortal medicine
wasn’t up to the task found themselves dealing with
more basic issues like nutrition and family planning,
and those working on medical triage, emergency
surgeries, and immediate first aid had to improvise
magical solutions to medicine shortages and poor
conditions.
If the Campaign has a weakness it’s the way
it’s members are dispersed across Detroit. As in
most Campaigns that focus on battle with the
Darkness, membership in the Radiant Campaign
skews towards Champions and the Court of Swords.
Nobles who find helping people in immediate need
more natural than following a long term plan. A
trend that goes all the way to the top. However
a plurality of the Campaign has united to focus on
downtown Detroit (close to support from Princesses
in Windsor) and are working tirelessly to cleanse
the district block by block. If even one district can
recover then all of Detroit will see it, and see hope.
Today only Operation: Automatic Heartland
can match the Radiant in influence and combat
power, and only when it pulls in out of town
resources for an operation. After absorbing many
of their allies into the Campaign, the groups who
remain independent tend to dislike the Radiant.
Stereotypes
• Automatic Heartland: I don’t care about
your jurisdiction. The government had
decades to help and did nothing. Now we’re
going to try our way.
• The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance:
You’re really selfish, and if you wont help
others there won’t be anyone left to help you.
• Local 911: I’ll fight monsters with you. But
we can’t fight to bring the factories back. It’s
not going to happen. Fight with us for a new
Detroit.
• The Lost Boys: No you don’t need to sell
drugs to survive. There is always a better
way, let us help you.
• C.O.R.D.: I saw them on the news once.
Their hearts are in the right place.
Operation:
Automatic
Heartland
An American city at risk of destruction. Ordinary
American citizens being attacked by monsters,
that’s something that concerns Uncle Sam. And
while Sam might not be much of a magician, he
has centuries of experience in dealing with Taint
and Darkness. After all, he’s created enough in
his day. In Detroit, spikes in various crimes and
economic figures tripped automatic red flags in
secret government computer systems, the wheels of
bureaucracy began to spin, and old Sam launched
Operation Automatic Heartland as the official
government response to the Darkness looming over
Detroit.
By any measure - manpower, funding, available
equipment- the Operation is woefully inadequate.
To understand what went wrong one has to
understand that the top secret monster hunters
embedded deep in the American military machine
are a rapid response force. They were never

45
intended to fight a war of attrition. Every soldier or
weapon in Detroit systematically eliminating minor
Darkspawn or Taint is a soldier who isn’t dealing
with an every-minute-counts emergency in another
state.
Operation: Automatic Heartland itself isn’t
even a combat team, it’s run by military
intelligence. Most of the staff are analysts or
computer technicians with a few fireteams of
soldiers creamed from the Delta Corps elite for good
measure. Their job is to monitor the situation
and write lots and lots and lots of reports to be
passed up the chain of command to be read by a
brass that doesn’t have the resources to respond
appropriately. Of course, if those reports contain
high priority targets that pose an immediate threat
then they can provoke a rapid reaction: Additional
manpower and equipment is flown in and the threat
dealt with, then withdrawn just as quickly. But
with every cry of “Darkspawn!” the response is
“Again?” and help is slower to arrive.
All together this means that Heartland is highly
effective at dealing with big problems, their brutal
response against the largest Tainted places and
monsters are a good part of the reason why
Detroit is still standing, but every year the reports
mention a higher baseline for Dark activity and
there’s nothing they can do about it. There’s
always another more immediate emergency in
another state. Political will in Washington favors
quick, sure victories over long-term struggles with
uncertain outcomes. So in typical D.C. fashion, the
government has approved doing more than nothing
and less than enough.
The top brass aren’t stupid, and they do
read the reports. It’s why they’ve taken a page
out of their Iraq playbook and given a quiet
nod allowing Automatic Heartland to provide
information, tactics, and the occasional piece of
equipment to local groups. But it’s also why there
is serious consideration being given to planning a
fake emergency to evacuate Detroit, quarantine any
46
Darkened and let the population disperse. While
the plan does call for a systematic destruction of
Taint through controlled demolitions once no one is
left to create new Taint, the bureaucrats only need
to look to New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina to
see what the exercise will look like in practice. No
one has any illusions; the evacuation will be less
than thorough and the clean-up will be placed at
the bottom of the priority pile - and remain there.
Those politicians who are aware of the plan
are providing the bulk of resistance, unwilling
or unable to determine what will be done with
a metropolis of unemployed, homeless, desperate
people. This operation will go into effect as soon
as there’s a large enough supply of free manpower
and a plan in place to shield the requisite politicians
from public outcry, which puts the Radiant on a
deadline to save Detroit. But no one can say when
that deadline is.
Stereotypes
• The Radiant: If you want to abandon the
plan next time you hear a civilian scream, get
your own people killed.
• The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance &
Local 911: Let’s not beat around the bush.
Things are bad and no one can blame law-
abiding citizens for protecting themselves. So
long as they stay law-abiding we’ll slip them
a little something.
• The Lost Boys: Just common criminals.
Their crimes are half the reason we have
monster incursions. But they’re not under
our jurisdiction.
• C.O.R.D.: Intelligent extranormal entities
usually like to take over leadership, even
grassroots community leadership. C.O.R.D.
are just puppets. Find the puppet-master
instead.
 Weapon Laws in Michigan
Possession of a firearm within Detroit could mean the difference between life and death for a
civilian - even without the creatures of the World of Darkness waiting in the shadows to strike.
Most people in the city possess a handgun of some kind, either legally or illegally purchased.
Gangs and organized criminals have been known to use fully automatic Kalashnikovs but only
when that kind of heavy firepower is needed - or a particularly loud “don’t fuck with us” message
is being sent.
All pistols are required to be registered with local law enforcement throughout the state of
Michigan. “Long” guns like hunting rifles, AR-15 semi-automatics, and shotguns are not subject
to this requirement. Open Carrying of a pistol or rifle is permitted within the state but is only
ever really done as a political statement; this type of activity usually results in scared onlookers
calling the police, and it is absolutely illegal to Open Carry a weapon while one is within a motor
vehicle. It is illegal to discharge a firearm in neighbourhoods except in cases of self-defence.
Individuals who fire a weapon to scare off an intruder but do not kill or harm said intruder have
been charged with felonies, though this is usually only applied to African Americans within the
city limits. Background checks are required for handguns in private sales, but not for private
sales of long guns.
Suburbanites would be able to purchase handguns, shotguns, and hunting rifles from one of
the many sporting goods stores in their neighbourhoods. Michigan is a concealed carry state, so
any civilian without a felony conviction can apply with the State for the ability to always carry a
hidden handgun on their person. The felony requirement means many of Detroit’s urban citizens
would never qualify for this license - though the city can barely enforce it except after an arrest
has already been made. Rifles are very common in the suburbs. Opening Day of Deer Season is
an unofficial holiday in the ‘burbs, when dad heads up into the wilderness of Northern Michigan
with his friends and coworkers to spend time at a cottage. Few people actually try to kill a
deer - the cleanup is an expensive affair; a license is required, paperwork must be filed with the
Department of Natural Resources, and a butcher procured to process the meat. Most “hunters”
just buy the gun for show then disappear into a heated hunting blind to relax for a weekend away
from the wife and kids.
The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance and Local 911 get their weapons legally, as do the Radiant
Campaign’s mortal members. The Lost Boys get their weaponry on the black market, likely
purchased from Indiana with its famously lax gun laws. Operation: Automatic Heartland are
of course supplied military grade equipment directly from Uncle Sam; though discretion usually
prevents them taking anything more noticeable than a machine gun or flamethrower.

just the right spot to wake up one or two frozen

The Neighbourhood Darkspawn; who’ll go on a small rampage before
somebody puts them down. Just another tragedy
Watch Alliance in the World of Darkness.
Things are different around Detroit. The
Most of the suburbs that surround Detroit remain Darkspawn that fester beneath Detroit’s Tainted
nice, even safe places to live despite the Darkness places are numerous and violently competitive.
and Taint just a few miles down the road. Which is Packs and lone wolves who can’t compete
not to say they’re unaffected. Even the most boring frequently set off across the frozen Dark World in
middle class neighbourhood generate the occasional search of Tainted Places to raid or colonize. Even a
Taint when long-term abuse is hidden behind a small suburban Taint could suddenly erupt with a
white picket fence, normally it cleans itself up in feral pack of Darkspawn whose activities will lead to
time. A new family moves in and their wholesome more Taint and perhaps more Darkspawn trekking
behaviour cancels out the Taint. At worst the Taint across the frozen wastes. Without constant
will create a Darkened or the new Nightscape be in vigilance the slightest Taint could rapidly spread

47
Detroit’s contagion to any bordering suburb.
The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance grew
slowly, as the danger did. In fact many of the
original members were Stormwracked, but as the
Darkness grew, even regular people began joining
together in Darkspawn-hunting cells. These cells
grew their own support networks, residents who
couldn’t or wouldn’t fight but wouldn’t stick their
heads in the sand either. In the end it just made
sense for the cells to link up to share information,
resources and tactics.
Today the Watch is a well-organized web of
mutual support that stretches across Detroit’s
suburbs. The base building block of the alliance
is the household, usually consisting of one nuclear
family (or rather its adults, and sometimes
teenagers) who are trained to fight together
in defence of home and hearth. Above the
household is the neighbourhood, everywhere within
fifteen minutes’ drive from a household. If an
attack is reported in a household’s neighbourhood,
they are expected to send one hunter to help.
Large households might be expected to send two
hunters, while single-parent families (especially if
the missing parent died on duty) are exempt.
After the neighbourhood comes the suburb,
which conforms to actual state-recognized cities
surrounding Detroit. Whereas a neighbourhood is
the area where households are expected to defend
against attacks in progress, the suburb is where the
households of the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance
are expected to join in on attacks against Tainted
Places and help prevent Detroit’s contagion from
spreading to the suburbs. Fundraising, canvassing,
combat training, and information gathering are also
organized at the suburb scale.
Finally above the suburb is the Alliance itself.
As of yet no combat operations have been run at
this scale, but there is a small elected assembly who
handle diplomacy and specialist teams who travel
where needed. Some of these teams are trained in
purifying taint and the others are trained to use
the small amount of heavy weaponry bequeathed
by Automatic Heartland.
Reputation is everything in the Alliance. The
more you help others the more help others owe
you. If you’ve charged blindly into someone’s
house after they’ve sounded the alarm others are
expected to show you that same loyalty, but if
you contribute less it’s acceptable for your allies
to wait for backup before putting themselves into
danger. The Neighbourhood Watch won’t turn a
blind eye as monsters eat their neighbors (after all,
it’s best to stop the monsters before they create
Taint), but ultimately the Watch exists to help
its members protect their families and its internal
48
culture reflects that.
Stereotypes
• The Radiant: I can’t risk my life trying to
clean up Detroit. I’ve got a family to protect.
• Automatic Heartland: I pay my taxes and
I expect the government to provide more help
than this, but I don’t blame the soldiers. It’s
not GI Joe’s fault he’s underfunded.
• Local 911: If you want the taxpayers to help
you out of that hole, maybe you should stop
digging.
• The Lost Boys: It was bad enough when I
couldn’t go downtown, but now I have to live
in fear of monsters because of those thugs.
It’s too much!
• C.O.R.D.: Who? Never heard of ‘em.
United Automobile
Workers, Local 911
When a man is in danger, he bands together with
those closest to him for the safety and strength
of numbers, fighting off the saber tooth tiger and
building fires against the cold. But in the modern
world danger can come from further than a spear’s
length away and those closest to you might not be
the people who grew up in your neighbourhood.
For decades Detroit’s lifeblood was the
automobile industry. Any threat to manufacturing
was a threat to a worker’s home and the food
he put on his family’s table. So the workers
formed powerful unions in opposition to unchecked
greed and corporatism from politicians and the Big
Three. In their own way they have been defending
Detroit from danger since long before the rise of
C.O.R.D.
When monsters became a serious concern for
the average line worker, union members who
decided they could no longer stick their heads in
the sand turned to their established networks of
support. First they formed cells to protect their
most vulnerable members - the Third Shift workers
who ran the lines during the night, and the families
waiting for them at home - then a network of cells.
It was at this point that the name “Local 911”
began to sound in union meetings. No one would
have to say “monster” or “supernatural” out loud
and fear being called a loon, they’d just call it “a
problem for Local 911”.
 Since Local 911 covers a large geographical area • The Lost Boys: I don’t go to that part of
and multiple factories, their tactics favour mobility. town. It’s too violent over there.
They roam the night in souped-up cars waiting for
the dispatcher to call in a problem, and there are a • C.O.R.D.: I don’t want to be a slave to
lot more people who know the emergency number welfare. I want an honest job with honest
than there are people who are prepared to admit it. pay.
In return the people Local 911 help are expected to
contribute to the union’s coffers, or better yet, take
up a gun and join the cause. When they aren’t busy The Lost Boys
reacting, Local 911 pool resources to build members
panic rooms and convert abandoned buildings into It should surprise no one that a city as Tainted
as Detroit had its share of problems before the
safehouses so people can last that little bit longer
until help arrives monsters moved in. Drugs and gang warfare were
The compact is a powerful force, but they rife in the 80s, and much of the oldest Taint in the
focus on protecting their people (and ever since center of Detroit traces its origins back to crime.
NAFTA was enacted regular union activism has As crime created Taint, it was the
begun to consume more of their member’s time). criminals who first felt it’s corrupting touch.
The servants of the Darkness have not defeated Darkened, Darkspawn, Mnemosyne, and of course
Local 911 but they have mostly contained them Stormwracked all grew out of the gangs. Despite
and keep them busy, while waiting for factory the ample material it had to work with, the
closures and downsizing to destroy their enemy. Darkness faced significant disadvantages in trying
Every year more members pack up to move to to take control of the gangs. For every gangbanger
other states and cities to find work. Local 911 turned Mnemosyne plotting to mould the gangs
only rarely go on the offence, but when they do with Taint, there were five Darkened or Darkspawn
they turn up in overwhelming numbers, sweeping twisted into inhuman forms by Umbrae. Say what
an entire neighbourhood for monsters and Taint to you will about judging a book by a cover, but with
keep a factory or a community of dues paying unionthe Darkness a monstrous face shows a monstrous
members clear of attacks. corruption.
Of all the local groups trying to clean up Despite the Darkness’ best efforts many of the
Detroit’s Taint, Local 911 are the most political,gangs united against a common threat, viciously
turning on any Darkspawn and even Darkened.
which is to say that while Local 911 itself does little
with mundane politics, but most of it’s members Competition for turf and avenging old grudges
are also members of United Automobile Workers continued but the unspoken code of fighting the
Union and they take that membership seriously. Darkness trumped those priorities. If their callous
treatment of their own infected created more Taint,
They are fighting a war on two fronts - one against
the Darkness, and one against outsourcing and another building could always be boarded up or
globalization. burned down. The wiser Mnemosyne left, the rest
found themselves exposed when the Stormwracked
Stereotypes came.
Today the Lost Boys rule an increasingly
• The Radiant: There’s no one I’d rather depopulated ghetto with an iron fist, running the
have watching my six in a fight than someone drug trade in cocaine and heroin while managing
who can make me bulletproof. That’s why I a network of pimps and prostitutes that cater
overlook the crap about a new economy for a to suburban Johns. Their drug factories and
new era. fuck motels are bristling with hidden Kalashnikovs
and molotovs to drive off the Darkness. Gang
• Automatic Heartland: The government safehouses stand side by side with Tainted places
should’ve sent help twenty years ago. If and deadly clashes between Darkspawn and
they’d sent jobs then, they wouldn’t need to gangbangers are a regular occurrence. Members
send drones now. frequently turn Stormwracked and with so many
• The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance: enemies around, those that do are usually found
They work side-by-side with us in the plant, dead atop a pile of Darkspawn corpses the next day.
but then they go home to the suburbs and Despite the Lost Boys’ practical understanding
act like they can just ignore Detroit. Those of Taint, many members are Darkened and face
suburbs won’t last if the jobs disappear. summary execution the moment Umbrae reveal
their nature, their bodies left for the wild dogs on

49
the urban prairie.
Relations between the Lost Boys and other
monster hunters are almost non-existent. The
Lost Boys feel, quite justifiably, that the outside
world has abandoned them to face the monsters
by themselves. When they’re offered an alliance
or assistance their first thought is to assume that
someone is trying to use them as pawns against the
monsters, or worse.
Stereotypes
• The Radiant: Don’t come onto my turf
dressed like a little kid and tell me what to
do!
• Automatic Heartland: It’s all part of
Whitey’s Plan. They let the monsters into
the ghetto then they burn it all down with us
inside and call it “collateral damage.” Not if
I got anything to say ‘bout it!
• The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance:
This is your fault. You didn’t give a fuck
until it was your necks on the line!
• Local 911: You better take yo’ ass back to
the big house, Uncle Tom!
• C.O.R.D.: They don’t speak for me, and I’m
sick of everybody acting like they do!
Community
Organization to
Reform Detroit
(C.O.R.D.)
Even in the World of Darkness, cities just don’t
get Tainted as badly as Detroit without some
special circumstance. C.O.R.D. is that special
circumstance.
C.O.R.D. are community activists working
toward a better future, or so they say to the public.
Unlike legitimate organizations, they rarely hold
demonstrations or gather petitions They don’t send
talking heads go on the local news programs to
speak of their good work, or get awarded lucrative
no-bid contracts from the city to make changes.
In fact they don’t seem to do much of anything
at all: The endless series of strategy meetings,
lunchtime discussions, and town hall debates for
members are always well attended with at least
one member of Detroit’s municipal government as a
guest attendee. The speeches are filled with passion
50
and anger about the oppression holding down “our
community” but no concrete plans are ever made,
other than agreeing to hold another meeting with
more bureaucrats to provide input. C.O.R.D. seem
to be an organization spinning its own wheels, going
nowhere quick.
But look beneath the surface and you’ll see the
truth: C.O.R.D. all but rules Detroit. The public
officials who visit open meetings aren’t visitors,
they’re unofficial members. So are the ambassadors
for other activist groups and charities, and the
managers forging links between business and the
community. City Hall, the Police, and all manner
of municipal institutions are full of people who got
their start in politics as a member of C.O.R.D. only
to mysteriously vanish from the member list and
reappear as an occasional visiting guest after being
given a leg up into office. Those decisions that don’t
get made in meetings, everyone who matters know
exactly which decision wasn’t made and diligently
implements it.
You can get by in Detroit without being part of
C.O.R.D. but only if they aren’t interested in you.
Stick your head up and start making real change
and they’ll use their enormous social influence to
drive you from Detroit. Or if they think you’re
worth the risk, they’ll start inviting members of
your organisation to the meetings where your future
is decided, and they won’t send them back until
they’re Darkened and subservient.
For that’s the deepest and most sinister secret
about C.O.R.D. After every meeting everyone
covers the lights and official and unofficial members
pray to the Darkness. C.O.R.D. was once an
upstanding group, but now it has been hollowed out
to be worn as a mask by a Dark Cult. They teach
that the Darkness is a force of freedom and justified
hatred. Through embracing it’s hatred and spite
the Black community will gain the power needed
to cast down the white man and the civilisation he
built on a legacy of colonial oppression. C.O.R.D.
firebrands go door to door stoking racial resentment
to bring unwitting victims to their meetings; there
skilled orators work to stoke anger and twist it
from an energy that could create positive change
into into an endless cycle of spite, bitterness,
racial resentment, and above all, hopelessness.
Above it all shadowy masterminds direct their
pawns towards further desecrations of their own
community; for the Darkness cares not who suffers,
only that the suffering grows and the closest and
most vulnerable victims are in C.O.R.D.’s back
yard. Most visitors don’t come back, community
activism isn’t for everyone, but they leave with a
seed of Taint in their hearts. Those who do return
are watched to see if they are worthy of learning
C.O.R.D.’s occult secrets, and perhaps worthy of a
political office to run in service of their new master.
Once C.O.R.D. was just another Dark Cult who
were lucky to be born in the right place at the right
time, but under the leadership of Thomas Cotton
they have become something more. Every time the
politicians in Washington, the global economy, or
Detroit’s own citizens created an issue C.O.R.D.
was there pushing for an ineffective or counter-
productive response. Detroit has been driven into
rot and ruin and in the end, C.O.R.D. won. Now
they’re just enjoying the spoils of their victory:
Spreading Taint, corrupting citizens, and of course
making sure nobody can cleanse the city.
Stereotypes
• The Radiant: Kill them! Kill them all! But
do it carefully.
• Automatic Heartland: The government’s
paltry response only proves everything we
ever said.
• The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance:
They fled to the suburbs and sabotaged the
city so we couldn’t follow them. But we don’t
want to follow them. We want to kill them.
• Local 911: You’re fighting to work in
whitey’s factory for crumbs off his table.
You’re going to be a slave forever boy!
• The Lost Boys: They’ll join us or destroy
themselves. It’s only a matter of time.
Initiation
Members of C.O.R.D. gain the following benefits
from the Mystery Cult Initiation Merit:
• Politics speciality: Detroit
•• Free dot in Allies (Detroit city
government)
••• Vice-ridden (Corrupt)
•••• Second free dot in Allies (Detroit city
government), Fixer
••••• Evil Influence Caligo
Turf
The borders between Detroit’s hunters and
monsters aren’t drawn on any map and are
often overlapping. However everyone fighting the
Darkness knows roughly where the boundaries are.
51
The Radiant Campaign tend to congregate
downtown, close to the border with Canada and
their allies in the Duchy of Windsor. Belle Isle is
the unofficial Headquarters and mustering ground
of the Radiant Campaign. Only one land-bridge
allows access to the island and the whole park
is enchanted with magical defences. The suburb
of Ferndale with its young, optimistic population
and lack of support from mortal hunter groups
is a secondary stronghold. Clinics, youth hostels,
and other voluntary organisations all over Detroit
are members or associated with the Campaign.
Radiant Champions will go wherever they believe
they are needed, though some of them try to
respect the Lost Boys’ turf for diplomatic reasons.
While other groups often complain about Radiants
entering their territory, especially if they don’t “fit
the neighbourhood’s character”, few are willing to
say it to a Champion’s face.
Automatic Heartland doesn’t claim any
territory and doesn’t respect any civilian’s right
to tell them where they can and cannot go. The
Operation is run from an office with a very boring
name hidden inside US Army Tank Automotive
Command, north of Detroit in the suburb of
Warren. The scouts who travel into the city are
spread throughout a variety of safe houses when
not on missions - most are repurposed residential
buildings outside city limits. Their missions take
them to all parts of Detroit, though most commonly
to the inner city. The Lost Boys give them a wide
berth, but they keep better tabs on Heartland than
the feds realize.
The Neighbourhood Watch Alliance claims all
the suburbs close to Detroit, except for Dearborn
and Southfield which they share with Local 911.
Everywhere north of the I-696 is unquestionably
Watchman territory. In suburbs without such a
strong barrier against wondering Darkspawn the
Watch still possesses significant influence but are
more willing to collaborate with other groups.
The Watch even has members inside Detroit but
their presence declines quickly as you move further
inwards. However, prejudice between city and
suburbs means that everyone acts like the Detroit
city limits are a hard boundary against their
influence.
Local 911 doesn’t take territory seriously. They
don’t claim their own and will drive through others’
turf to get where their protectees need them (they
avoid parking in Lost Boy turf though); however
they’re mostly called to the western and northern
parts of Detroit adjacent to the suburbs, the
rougher, Blue Collar neighbourhoods, and that’s
generally understood to be their turf. Along
with Dearborn (the HQ of Ford Motor Company),
Roseville, and Southfield, where the local cells of
the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance have looser ties
to wider Compacts, they maintain a few repurposed
Union Halls within the Detroit city limits as
mustering grounds.
The Lost Boys claim ownership of the centre
of Detroit, including Highland Park but not
Hamtramck. However their control is not uniform;
some neighbourhoods are fiercely guarded against
the Darkspawn, some are home to gangs that
remain independent, and others are abandoned and
inhabited only by monsters and the truly desperate.
The Lost Boys take turf far more seriously than
any other group and are quick to challenge any
trespasser. They’ll turn a blind eye if someone
52
burns down some Taint in their backyard, mostly
because anyone doing so is likely to be Automatic
Heartland or a Radiant Champion, and the Lost
Boys don’t pick fights with stronger foes unless
there’s a good reason to.
C.O.R.D. are not on their foes’ radar, and
with the municipal government firmly under their
control they are free do whatever they wish without
regards for anyone’s else’s territory. C.O.R.D.’s
members and pawns live all over Detroit and
its suburbs, the higher ranks are often hidden
away from any obvious manifestation of Taint
or Darkspawn. If they need to they’ll simply
use Caligines to create Taint and call Darkspawn
wherever they are required.
 Chapter 4: Nobles
and Knaves
“Most people, they wanna save Detroit. You can’t save Detroit; you gotta be Detroit.”
—Antonio “Shades” Agee, graffiti artist (quoted in “Taking Back Detroit” by Susan Ager, writing for
National Geographic Magazine)

be fought and beaten.”

Princess Zari of
Zari, Princess of Swords, was born Breanna
Swords, The Spirit Harris, to her mother Lashawna and father Leon.
Her parents married and opened a Coney Island
of Detroit restaurant in the 90s when Leon’s job as a line
manager at a plant was cut. Their small diner
“It’s not enough to fight evil. You need to be seen barely kept above profitable selling cheap burgers
to fight evil, because people need to see that evil can

53
and coney dogs, and employing Breanna’s friends as
waiters and waitresses. The 24 hour establishment
was rarely the target of armed robberies… until the
Darkness came calling and Breanna found herself
Blossoming into her power.
The assailants were showing what Breanna
thought were serious withdrawal symptoms from
hard drugs, twitching and making paranoid claims
about a silent alarm going off, and the Lights
being too bright even though half the lights
inside were dead fluorescents, and the restaurant
couldn’t afford a silent alarm. Breanna could
tell immediately that these three were trouble.
The busboy, Andrei, emptied the register of its
eighty-six dollars for them, but the thieves were
unsatisfied and demanded to know where the safe
was. Their customers, five dead tired third-shift
factory workers, were effectively hostages. Only
Breanna, and her friends/coworkers Andrei and
Lucja were in a position to help. Andrei tried
to explain there was no safe, no silent alarm, no
problem with the lights while Lucja offered her tip
money for the thieves.
Which was when the assailants gave in to the
Darkness and the bullets started flying.
Breanna found herself endowed with power
beyond her wildest imaginings. At her father’s
insistence she’d taken some martial arts classes for
personal protection, but with this kind of power,
she felt like she could could take on an army.
While her friends helped the customers head for
the exits Zari proceeded to beat the Darkened to
bloody pulps with the butts of their own guns. One
managed to escape and flee for their hangout down
the block, only for Zari to give chase. What she
found in the boarded up crackhouse was a taint and
filth that sent shivers of revulsion straight through
skin that barely bruised from gunfire, a filthy lair
where the thieves had been sleeping on rubbish
and broken needles between armed robberies and
assaults. The basement, where the survivor fled,
was home to a powerful Darkspawn. Without
hesitation Zari charged at her new opponent, her
magical weapon forming in her hands. As Zari
battled her first monster the last thief watched and
ranted about how there were hundreds just like it
hiding in the deep dark places of the city, that
it would be best for her to flee now, give up her
calling as a Princes, and forsake this city. Which
was about when Zari used her powers to kick over
a support beam and bring half the house down on
the creature.
Three days later, after giving a statement to
the DPD, Breanna was approached by Princess
Mashika, explaining what exactly she was: A
Radiant soul, a reincarnated member of the Royal
54
Courts, a Princess. She told Breanna that this
fight against the Darkness was not something she
would have to do alone. There were others fighting
this war and Mashika could help them meet the
others. Mashika assumed Breanna would need time
to consider her options, whether this fight was
something she was ready for- but Breanna joined
the Radiant Campaign then and there. On her first
visit to the Dreamlands as a Princess, The Queen of
Swords recognized the fire and passion in Breanna’s
soul as that of a Hero. She welcomed Breanna
into the her Court, answered every question the
young Princess had, and in return she asked only
one thing.
“Burn brightly, be the light in a dark city.”
The Queen gave Breanna her blessing,
expressing her approval of the name Breanna had
chosen for herself- Zari. For several years now,
Zari has been the tip of the spear in the Radiant’s
campaign. When time is of the essence, Zari has
been known to drop everything to stop Cataphract
from overcoming a neighbourhood, or rescuing the
newly Blossomed from the Darkness
Appearance
Princess Zari is a classical beauty, with African
features and a body alike to a Greco-Roman statue
brought to life. She looks older than she is, in her
late twenties and wears a pleated skirt in the style
of a Roman legionary and a breastplate that shows
off her powerful muscles and ebony skin that always
heals without scars. A red cape, sandals, and
bracers complete her Heraldry. Notably, whenever
Zari conjures fire it manifests as bright orange with
black streaks.
When she is not transformed Zari looks like a
less extraordinary version of herself. She’s above
average for a woman in height, but not six foot tall.
She looks way more muscular and athletic than a
girl from Detroit’s inner city should be, but not like
an Olympian goddess. Zari favours bulky padded
clothes to appear more normal.
Storytelling Hints
Zari is one of the two leaders of the Radiant
Campaign, of the two she takes far more of the
spotlight and does far less organizing. Like most
Princesses of Swords, Zari doesn’t so much govern
as lead by example. She is the first into battle
and rarely needs to retreat. Zari’s followers in the
Campaign are often literal, they follow her around
the city knowing that when she flushes out some
Tainted building the Darkspawn will be isolated
and exposed – perfect prey for Men-at-Arms to a self propelled orb surrounded by a ring of spikes
finish the job. (Spread 2, Quaking), You Might Hurt Yourself,
Although Zari has a lot of anger in her heart for Contest of Champions, Consecrate, Rousing Song
the Darkness it’s outweighed by the love she feels of Heroism, Love’s Beacon, Weight of Memory
for Detroit. She loves the people and the history, (Tainted), Barrier Jacket (Adamant 2), Celestial
when her ancestors were freed from bondage they Grace (Danmaku Dance, Leap of Faith), Valiant
came to seek a better life, Zari still feels that hope Mind, Fireproof, Only a Flesh Wound, Outrace the
echoing through the city when she walks the streets Sun
at night and hates the thought of it ever being in Calling: Champion
vain. That love is what drives her and it’s what she Queen: Swords
tries to share with any new Princess who joins the Inner Light: 5
campaign, especially if they’re from out of town. Belief: 5
While many of the Champions in the campaign Invocations: Fuoco 5, Terra 2, Acqua 1, Tempesta
like to focus their efforts on the area around their 1
community (or adopted community for out of
town Princesses) Zari tends to roam depending on
wherever she’s been asked to help, wherever there’s Princess Mashika of
been reports of unusual Darkspawn activity, or just
wherever feels right today. While she tries to make
sure any local Princesses have some warning before
Clubs, The Mother of
she arrives so they can prepare for the hornet’s
nests she’s kicked Zari has been known to change
Detroit
targets at the 11th hour, leaving Princesses and
“We know how to live in cities and in the
Squires scrambling to prepare for the Darkspawn
countryside but there’s never been an environment
fleeing Zari’s flames. Few in the Campaign mind,
like Detroit before. That’s what the kids and I are
most of them are in the Court of Swords too, they
doing, we’re all learning how to live in a post-urban
know they’d to the same in Zari’s position.
environment.”
Attributes: Intelligence 3, Wits 3, Resolve
Mashika was born as Shalontae, the middle child
3, Strength 4(6), Dexterity 3(5), Stamina 4(5),
of three to an unemployed mother and one of
Presence 3(5), Manipulation 3, Composure 3.
several potential fathers. Given the circumstances
Skills: Academics 1, Computer 1, Investigation
Shalontae’s early life went remarkably well. Like all
2, Occult 2, Politics 1, Athletics 5 (6), Brawl 2
reincarnated Princesses she had an open heart and
(4), Drive 2, Firearms 1 (7), Survival 1, Weaponry
made friends easily. From a young age she began
1, Empathy 4 (5), Expression 3, Intimidation 3,
to travel freely, asserting control over a chaotic
Persuasion 2, Socialize 2, Streetwise 2.
home life by staying with friends or relations as
Merits: Danger Sense 2, Fast Reflexes 1, Inspiring
she pleased. As she got older and more aware of
3, Resources 2 (Detroit Have Not), Small Unit
the problems around her she began to sleep more
Tactics 2, Status 5, Radiant Campaign, Striking
and more, seeking solace in the Dreamlands. It
Looks 1 (powerful), Circle 2, Bequest 4 (A
was during these dreams that she first developed
ring which turns into a serrated knife containing
her love of nature.
Purgation).
When she was eleven Detroit took its dues
Transformed Merits: Seizing the Edge 2, Allies
from her family. Shalontae awoke from a long
5 (Radiant Campaign), Allies 2 (Local 911),
trip through the Dreamlands to discover her older
Allies 1 (Neighbourhood Watch Alliance), Allies
brother was on the run from the police. Fresh with
1 (Automatic Heartland), Fame 2 (Detroit urban
overconfidence from her dreams Shalontae slipped
legend), Inspiring 3, Striking Looks 2 (powerful).
out of her house at the very first opportunity
Virtues: Honest - Zari is a Sword’s Sword. She
and went looking for her brother in the dead
says what she believes, often at the top of her lungs.
of night. The tricks of stealth and survival she
Righteous - as a Hero through and through Zari is
remembered from her dreams were impressive for
committed to battling evil.
an eleven year old, and quite insufficient for the
Vice: Hasty - Zari thinks with her gut, and acts
real world. Shortly after entering the bad part of
like she’s invincible when she’s merely bulletproof.
town Shalontae caught the eye of a roving pack of
Charms: Light the Way, We Rely On You (Engine
Darkspawn.
Heart, Count No Cost), Light’s Aegis. Kensai -
She ran for the nearest humans she could find, a
razor sharp lacquered nails (Burning), Levinbolt -
group of Lost Boys relaxing on the corner outside a

55
safehouse. The gangsters took one look at what
was stalking her and barricaded themselves and
Shalontae inside. Guided by an unseen intelligence
the Darkspawn simply watched and waited for more
of their number to turn up.
And so the girl who would escape to dreams
found herself spending a sleepless night trying
to raise morale as the monsters crowded outside.
A Lost Boys relief force was repelled, and the
defenders in turn repelled an attack on the
safehouse. It was then that Shalontae met her
mentor and discovered her own power.
Attracted by the gunfire Princess Thulisile of
Swords arrived and quickly routed the Darkspawn
through the simple fact that she could fly, and
they could not. Relations between the Radiant
and the Lost Boys were as tense back then as
they are now, but they were never tense enough to
prevent an eleven-year-old seeking comfort from her
shining savior. Thulisile’s intuition told her that
Shalontae was ready to Blossom but was being kept
from her power by her habit of hiding. There and
then Thulisisle pushed Shalontae into Blossoming
with nothing more than a stern lecture on taking
responsibility for the trouble she’d attracted.
Together the two Princesses began a long career
fighting for Detroit and its people, starting with
tracking down Shalontae/Mashika’s brother and
convincing him to turn himself in. For two years
Mashika fought the Darkness and rediscovered the
skills of her past lives until Thulisisle fell while
trying to purify a bloated stain of Taint. After
that Mashika lost her will to fight and began living
entirely as Shalontae for a while; playing the role of
peacemaker and diplomat between her family and
neighbours.
It was during this time that Shalontae noticed
many of her neighbors suffering from diabetes,
dying because they could not afford the expensive
insulin required to live. She decided that idleness
and poor diet were both large sources of trouble in
Detroit’s community. Adopting the role of Mashika
once again she Charmed the urban wilderness near
her into producing bountiful harvests, then with a
careful application of persuasion and browbeating
she began organizing and teaching the unemployed
youth of her neighbourhood how to take care of
it. Soon the empty parks and lots of dead brush
in her neighbourhood were producing raspberries,
potatoes, lettuce and onions- ingredients that were
more precious than gold in Detroit and essential for
the health of the body.
With her fighting spirit partially restored
Mashika returned to the Radiant and offered her
services as a reservist and an outreach officer. She
was, of course, welcomed back like the prodigal son.
56
Appearance
Mashika is a pretty woman, in a girl-next-door
way. She appears to be somewhere between 18
and 25, and like most Princesses she looks like she
is in perfect health. She keeps her hair braided
and tied back with a simple bandanna and her
heraldry takes the form of a simple calfskin dress
and boots. However her most striking feature is
her arms: Though Mashika’s skin is ebony she has
golden brown skin from her elbows down and in
splotches on her upper arm. Her lower arms are
also covered in intricate tattoos of nature scenes
and much of her magic is focused through these
pictures. For example, when she wishes to speak
to an animal a tattoo of an animal will emerge and
talk for her.
In her mundane self Shalontae is a regular
twenty year old. She is slightly overweight from
a poor diet and excessive sleeping throughout her
childhood, and keeps her mundane hair cut short
as it tends to get in the way. Shalontae is usually
found in practical, if cheap, outdoor-wear.
Storytelling Hints
Mashika is one of the two leaders of the Radiant
Campaign. Her role is to ensure that community
links remain open and communication channels
with other hunters are maintained; and that
the information coming through those channels is
properly understood and distributed. Zari may
lead the battle against the Darkness, but Mashika
ensures there is a plan to prevent the Darkness from
taking root again after each victory is won.
Like most of the Radiant Campaign community
outreach is loosely organised with each Nakama
having operational freedom, but no Noble in the
Metro area knows as many people willing to help
as Mashika does. She spends as much time on
the ground with regular Detroiters as she does
organising her subordinate Princesses. To maintain
public relations Mashika goes to the heart and soul
of Detroit’s communities: The mothers. For every
deadbeat parent abandoning their child, there are
a dozen more with the will to make a better life
for their kids, but lacking the means and resources
to do so. They regularly “volunteer” their youths
to work on Mashika’s farms to keep them out of
trouble and teach them a work ethic that might
land them a legitimate job when the opportunity
for one comes along. So long as the youths are
bringing home fresh produce and are kept out of
trouble, Mashika will never be unwelcome where
mothers gather and gossip.
C.O.R.D. has responded with organized “drug
raids” via corrupt police officers on some of the
indoor gardens, and with targeted Darkspawn Frederick Freeman,
attacks on outdoor locations. Defending against
the latter requires vigilant Nobles, but the Local 911 President
former requires skilled contacts in government, law
enforcement, media, and government agencies that
“I only want three things: a stable job, a good
have escaped C.O.R.D.’s grip.
community at my side, and to walk the streets
Those who do not know her personally would
without fear. Tell me that’s not too much to ask
be surprised to learn that Mashika doesn’t want to
for.”
transform Detroit into an agricultural economy. In
truth, she doesn’t believe that hand farming could
Frederick Freeman—Fred to his friends, Prez to
ever compete with mechanised Midwestern farms
Local 911—was a Hunter since before the founding
and she sees nothing wrong if her farms require
of Local 911. His first hunt has become the stuff
a little magic from herself or her or her Sworn
of legends, filled with high speed car chases, battles
to keep everything running smoothly. Today the
against impossible odds, grit, determination, and
people of Detroit need dignified work and good
all-American spirit.
food. Tomorrow… things always change.
The truth is of course much more mundane.
When Frederick was a younger man his United
Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 3 (4), Resolve 3
Automobile Local President, a man named William
(5), Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4, Presence
Fosswell, was considered to be a man past his
3, Manipulation 3 (4), Composure 3 (5).
prime. Frederick was nominated as the unfortunate
Skills: Crafts 4 (Farming), Politics 2, Science 2
soul to gently suggest retirement for the good of the
(Horticultural), Athletics 3, Firearms 0 (3) Survival
union.
2, Animal Ken 2 (5), Empathy 5 (7), Expression 2,
And so one one day Fredrick found himself
Persuasion 4, Socialize 3, Streetwise 2, Surberfuge
with a stowaway while driving home from an
2
unproductive dinner. During a brief moment when
Merits: Holistic Awareness 1, Meditative Mind 1,
the hosts were away, William’s son Lucas begged
Patient 1, Hardy 2, Allies 5 (Radiant Campaign),
Fredrick to take him away, for his parents had
Allies 4 (Local parents), Allies 4 (Local Youths),
been replaced by monsters. If Lucas had said
Allies 1(Local 911), Allies 1 (Neighbourhood Watch
child abuse Frederick would have rounded up some
Alliance), Allies 1 (Automatic Heartland), Allies
friends and “dealt” with the problem, but Lucas
1 (Lost Boys), Contacts 5 (Farmers, Parents,
had said monsters and so Fredrick drove them to
Education System, Youth Workers, Youths),
his church to seek reassurance that monsters were
Resources 2, Staff 2 (Crafts, Socialize), Circle 4.
not real.
Transformed Merits: Fame 2
To Fredrick’s surprise Father Clancey did not
Virtues: Trustworthy - Parents wouldn’t trust
join him in denying monsters. Instead he dug
their kids to just anyone after all. Humble - Despite
through church newsletters until he had what he
being a powerful supernatural entity Mashika is
needed to devise a plan. The next Saturday when
happiest as a farmer.
Clancey shook William’s hand he was wearing a
Vice: Indecisive - Mashika has a habit of looking
jade ring and Frederick was standing right next
at every issue from all points of view before taking
to him, the two men saw Fosswell’s reaction and
a decision, this requires spending a long time
exchanged a silent agreement.
thinking.
Using a stolen car fresh from the production
Calling: Grace
line, Fredrick and Clancey collected Lucas on his
Queen: Clubs
way home from school and drove him to a priest
Charms: We Rely on You (Steady Resolve,
Clancey knew and trusted in Indiana. Along the
Sea-Foam’s Touch, Beginner’s Luck), Tranquil
way they dodged both police and an AMBER alert.
Glade, Drawn by the Moon, Oaken Fortitude, Fair
There were no car chases and only one small gun
Welcome, Helping Hand (Enduring), Laying Down
fight with a couple of lone highway patrol officers,
the Line, Small Providence, Better Together, Beast
the only injury was to Clancey’s arm.
Speaker, Javelot (Spread, Revealing), Tangling
With Lucas safe and Clancey in a hospital in
Vine, Consecrate, Barrier Jacket, Celestial Grace
Indiana, Fredrick returned alone. He burned the
(Danmaku Dance)
stolen car on the outskirts of Detroit in a moment
Inner Light: 5
he describes as his rebirth. With the heat of the
Belief: 6
burning car, the sun rising behind the city, and
Invocations: Legno 4, Terra 3, Acqua 2, Aria 1
sleep deprivation, Frederick saw Detroit on fire. For

57
a long while Lucas considered leaving the burning on a small group while leaving everyone else with
city, before he marched into hell with nothing but broad orders and little oversight.
the clothes on his back, a gun, and half a clip of Outside of the hunt Fredrick is a great believer
bullets with the Devil’s name on them. in the politics of respectability: he believes that
Detroit is in too deep a hole to climb out on its own,
and that it will need the suburbs’ help (or at least
Appearance their non-interference) if it’s ever going to recover.
This makes him unpopular with some Detroiters,
Fredrick is an African-American man in his mid- who accuse him of appeasing the suburbanites and
thirties, with a lanky build and close-cropped businessmen who abandoned Detroit in the first
hair that’s beginning to show a touch of gray. place; some go so far as to call him an “Uncle
Because of his position within Local 911, he is more Tom,” though never within earshot if they’re wise.
fastidious about his appearance than the average
mechanic: his chin is always shaven and his hair Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3,
is always trimmed, although he’s not afraid to Strength 4, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Presence 4,
get his hands dirty in an engine-block. When Manipulation 2, Composure 2.
working, he wears a blue jumpsuit with his name Skills: Crafts 3 (Vehicles, Safe houses),
stitched on the left breast and he has a second Investigation 1, Occult 1, Politics 2 (Labour
larger set that he wears on top of store bought activism), Science 1 (Automotive engineering),
body armor when he’s hunting. When representing Athletics 2, Drive 5 (Combat driving), Firearms
either United Automobile Workers or Local 911 he 3 (While driving), Survival 1, Weaponry 2 (Tools),
always makes sure to clean up; scrubbing away the Empathy 2, Expression 2 (Activism), Intimidation
oil and grime under his fingernails and adopting 2, Persuasion 3, Socialize 1, Streetwise 1
respectable attire. He favors dark suits with a Merits: Direction Sense 1, Professional Training 3
single pale accent, such as a white pocket-square (Labourer, Athletics, Crafts, Expression), Crack
or a light-blue tie. Though it sometimes raises Driver 3, Stunt Driver 4, Contacts 3 (Labour
eyebrows, he never goes anywhere without his unions, Automotive Industry, Construction
“lucky” jade ring. Industry), Resources 2, Safe Place 3 (a panic room
at home), Status 5 (Local 911), Status 3 (United
Automotive Workers), Fire and Motion 1.
Storytelling Hints Virtue: Charity - Frederick is skilled a skilled,
experienced and well connected worker with good
As the leader of Local 911 Frederick brings one
leadership skills. He could leave Detroit and start
part combat skill, one part leadership, and two
a garage anywhere, he stays to help his city.
parts dependability. He’s a skilled listener with
Vice: Pride - The world has looked down on
a knack for hearing what the person asking for
Frederick, both for the colour of his skin and the
help has already decided to do, then instructing
colour of his collar. His need to prove the world
them to do just that in a calm authoritative tone.
wrong has lead to his share of mistakes.
Like a lot of Detroit’s citizens the Hunters of
Local 911 are adept at finding creative solutions to
problems, whether it’s a shortage of ammunition or Phoebe
a strange new monster. They don’t need Frederick
to micromanage, just to make sure everyone’s head Phoebe is Fredrick’s pride and a monster of
stays in the game. Detroit’s streets. She was born as a humble Ford
In combat Frederick likes to stay behind the Super Duty F-550 with an attached camper van,
wheel and he likes to keep his cell safe inside their then she was stripped down by hand and rebuilt as
mobile fortress when he can. He’s a good shot and the flagship of Local 911’s fleet.
knows how to swing a wrench, but so are most The body was removed and replaced with
of Local 911’s Hunters. Frederick’s true talent is armour and bulletproof glass and the engine was
driving. When his adrenaline starts pumping he replaced with two monstrous diesel engines to
can squeeze near miraculous feats out of anything compensate for the extra weight. The camper
on wheels. If he has a weakness in battle it’s big van was stripped until it was just an armoured
picture tactics, Frederick is far from incapable but box then fitted with stabilized firing platforms
he finds it hard to keep track of too many things at for an entire cell. As well as the usual stashes
any given time. If he’s leading his Cell he’ll make of medical supplies, weapons, and ammunition
great snap decisions but when he’s in charge of a Phoebe contains both a mobile phone signal
larger group he’ll develop tunnel vision and focus booster and a radio base station. While she has

58
no externally mounted guns, there is an industrial leaders of the Lost Boys came to understand Jerome
strength pump attached to the auxiliary fuel tanks was in charge. Pride is a dangerous thing, and
with a long enough hose to be used from any of the few of the Lost Boy’s leaders would accept being
firing platforms; and there’s plenty of flair guns in publicly challenged by Jerome. The smart ones
the equipment caches. make sure they’ve got their instructions before they
As a favour from the Radiant, Phoebe speak publicly. In Detroit the dumb ones never
even has supernatural enhancements: she’s been survive for long.
permanently Consecrated and enchanted with the
Ofuda and Warded Conditions.
Automatic Heartland have been known to Appearance
comment that Phoebe is superior to their urban
resonance vehicles, the trick is that a black ops The first thing that anyone notices about Jerome
vehicle needs to blend in and survive an inspectionis that he’s shockingly young to be one of the most
while Phoebe is allowed to look like an armoured powerful men in Detroit, he’s only fourteen years
beast that’s barely this side of legal. At least, old. The second thing they notice is that he really
unless someone looks inside or under the tarp on does not look threatening at all, but then he has
the roof where Fredrick keeps the enormous ram plenty of people make threats for him.
when he can’t get away with mounting it on the Jerome is a slightly pudgy African American
front. youth with close cropped hair. He usually dresses
in warm clothing due to poor circulation, and
Dice Modifier: -3 Size: 18 Durability: 4 favours designer waterproof coats, thick trousers
Structure: 22 Speed: 90 High Acceleration and practical boots instead of designer sneakers.
Firing platforms: Passengers get +2 to firearms Being very short sighted he wears thick glasses
Armoured Ram: +1 Durability from the front, (his old nickname “four-eyes” became four as his
crashes against soft targets never harm Phoebie or respect grew), but has been known to leave them off
her passengers, anyone struck by the ram suffers when he wants to make an impression of strength.
Lethal, not Bashing, Damage. Looks terrifying: Jerome’s most prominent statement is a large
+4 to intimidation when driving at someone. diamond earring in his right ear. At least, he claims
it’s a real diamond stolen from an expensive jeweler.
Nobody around him knows how to check for sure.

Jerome “Four”
Storytelling Hints
Lucas, Lost Boy
In the midst of violence, decay, and chaos Jerome
Consigliere sticks out like a sore thumb. He is calm, analytical,
and rarely orders violence unless there’s a practical
“Politicians don’t care about us, they just want the benefit. He may not be book smart, but he can
ghetto to go away. They don’t care if we get out or read a room and manipulate egos like the savviest
get killed. But we got no way out, we got no money, politician. However he is also cynical, he’d consider
we ain’t even got much food, but we got Lost Boy offers of resources that would help the Lost Boys
pride. We ain’t going down without a fight.” survive but is unlikely to accept anything that
requires him to trust an outsider or believe things
Life in the ghettos of Detroit is hard, and often can get better.
short. For years the leadership of the Lost Nobody, not even Jerome, is aware that he is
Boys changed constantly. Charismatic leaders and in fact suffering from clinical depression. This is
strong warlords rose to the top, each in turn fell to entirely environmental, a product of poor diet and
the monsters, to rival Lost Boys, or were corrupted a life surrounded by violence, death and misery. As
by Taint. Through all the years of instability a consequence Jerome doesn’t believe that things
Jerome was at the leader’s side doing what needed can actually get better and makes no attempt to
to be done. Allocating food and beds, keeping track improve life for the Lost Boys beyond finding a
of the latest no-go areas and safehouses, organising more comfortable safe-house or better food. His
scavenging teams to seek out money and supplies long term plan is to turn his inner city turf into a
and raiding teams to burn out Taints and monster fortress to make a last stand in, and die killing as
nests that threatened the residential areas. many of the Darkspawn as possible.
As leaders came and went their influence waned With that said, it is questionable what he could
while Jerome’s star rose. In time even the nominal actually do if he tried. Leading a street gang does

59
not provide the resources needed for urban renewal
and no matter how well the Lost Boys manage their
Rachel Ruth,
drug dens and pimps to prevent Taint from building
up; those industries don’t need a supernatural force Neighbourhood
to blight a neighbourhood or ruin their employees’
chances for a stable and prosperous life.
Watch Bartender
The ironic thing is that Jerome could quite
easily escape Detroit. His grandmother, Jerome’s
“My family were Detroit back when it was a fort.
last surviving relative, left in the Talented Tenth’s
Coleman Young forced us across 8 Mile, but we’re
exodus and is currently living happily in a small
not giving another inch.”
Ohio church-town. Her old church is currently used
by the Lost Boys as an infirmary – it’s a Blessed
Rachel is a second generation hunter, six years ago
Place, if barely. Jerome avoids it because being
her father went out to rescue a neighbour who
within the church makes him feel hope, and that’s
was cornered by Darkspawn and never came home.
scary but deep down he knows he could find the
Almost overnight Rachel became a different person.
Tenth’s old records and hotwire a car to take him
She threw away her boy band posters, deleted her
to his grandmother. If he believed it was possible
social media, dropped out of school and followed her
for life to be better he would have left already, and
father’s footsteps into the Neighbourhood Watch
without him the Lost Boys would not last for long.
Alliance.
Even before she joined Rachel was known and
Attributes: Intelligence 4, Wits 4, Resolve 4,
liked by the Watch, as she waitressed for her
Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 2, Presence 3,
parents bar, J. Edgar’s which doubled as a Watch
Manipulation 4, Composure 3.
meeting house. This combined with a reckless
Skills: Academics 1, Computer 1, Investigation 2,
willingness to risk her life for others soon earned
Occult 2 (Taint), Politics 1 (Detroit), Athletics 1,
Rachel status and acclaim from her comrades.
Brawl 1, Drive 1, Firearms 2, Larceny 2, Stealth
The suburbs of Detroit share a common ideal
3, Survival 2 (Urban), Weaponry 1, Empathy
among their blue collar workers: when a man
2, Expression 1, Intimidation 1, Persuasion 3
punches out of the clock, he should have a cold
(Lost Boys), Socialize 2 (Lost Boys), Streetwise
one with his brothers and sisters who work the line
5 (Gangs, The Darkness, Hunters), Subterfuge 3
with him. Turns out, those same workers tend to
(Underestimate Me).
talk more openly about the troubles they’ve seen in
Merits: Common Sense 3, Danger Sense 2,
and around their neighbourhood when their blood-
Direction Sense 1, Investigative Aid 1 (Streetwise),
alcohol-level is higher than 0. Rachel and her father
Tolerance for Biology 1, Anonymity 3, Fixer 2,
used their bar to follow up on tips and rumors from
Resources 5 (Detroit Have-Not), Staff 5 (Brawl,
the neighbourhood locals at first. If one spoke of a
Firearms, Survival, Intimidation, Streetwise),
beast that drinks the blood of the innocent, ignore
Status 5 (Lost Boys), Turf 3 (vast tracts of inner-
it. If three share the same story? Follow up, ASAP.
city Detroit).
A bar is also the perfect place to host late-night
Virtue: Generous. Jerome remains standing at
meetups for NWA cells. They’re warm, spacious,
the head of the Lost Boys because he isn’t in it
and well stocked with liquid courage.
for power, perks, or to prove he’s stronger than the
Rachel’s first test (and challenge) to her
other guy. His leadership is for the good of the
leadership came when the Radiant launched
members.
an offensive into Roseville. Under ordinary
Vice: Pessimistic. Because he suffers from
circumstances Watchmen don’t charge into battle
depression, and because the bottom line is that he’s
far from home and risk leaving their families
right to be, Jerome doesn’t have much optimism in
unprotected; but the Alliance was still hurting
his soul.
from losing Roseville to factory closures, drugs, and
Taint. When a large group of young Watchmen,
including members of her own cell, announced their
intent to join the effort and could not be dissuaded
Rachel used her status to convince hesitant Hunters
to come along and make sure their comrades got
safely home - the loss of so many hunters could
permanently weaken the alliance.
It turned out to be a moot point.
During the battle Rachel was shocked to see

60
that the Watchmen who first decided to attend her feet in a warm crowded pub. When hunting
showed more loyalty to the so-called Nobility than monsters she wears store-bought protective gear.
they did to their own Cells, and after the battle
the confrontation resulted in over a dozen hunters
defecting to the Radiant. To say the Watch were Storytelling Hints
shocked was an understatement. The turncoats
Time and the camaraderie of fighting alongside the
may have been on the young side, but they were
Watch has allowed Rachel to somewhat heal from
sons and daughters known to have sensible heads;
the wounds of her father’s passing, and now she
several were already starting families of their own.
spends more time organising and keeping abreast
Rachel remembered the lessons her father
of developments in the watch as she does actually
taught before his passing. You trust the actions
fighting. She also spends more time working in
of the men beside you, not sweet words from the
her real job; having replaced her late father as the
boss standing above. The fact that these children
owner and operator of the family bar, J. Edgar’s;
were able to ensnare her NWA brothers and sisters
much like its’ namesake, the establishment is much
with a few uplifting words, not proven action,
more of an information gathering front than an
showed that they were closer to a boss than a fellow
entertainment venue. Still, that doesn’t stop one
labourer; calling each other royalty didn’t help.
from having a good time if they come looking to
And any boss who could break union solidarity
unwind after a long shift.
with words along was, not automatically evil, but
Among the Watch Rachel has no formal
certainly dangerous and now had influence among
leadership position (no such positions exist) but
the Alliance’s kids.
having fought alongside an impressive number of
It was not the Alliance’s way to start an
watchmen and served drinks to even more, Rachel
offensive war, and the returning watchmen had
is given respect whenever she speaks and always
seen the terrifying power of a Radiant Champion
knows the right person to speak to. Watchmen
first hand. But concerned parents pushed hard
come to Rachel when they need help getting a
for the Watch to cross the I-696 bridges and wage
word out or organising something bigger than their
war to get their kids back. Through deft political
neighbourhood, and a Radiant could do the same.
maneuvering (and more than one round of her dad’s
In person Rachel is personable and gregarious
‘Third Shift Special’ cocktails) Rachel was able to
if she likes you, and warm and hospitable in a
keep the NWA focused on its mission of defending
practised way if she doesn’t. Despite her strong
the suburbs without fracturing the membership.
political views she’s good at keeping her opinions to
But she knows the wounds haven’t healed. The
herself but anyone with the social skills of a Princess
defectors still live in the same suburbs, still mow
will likely notice she blames urban Detroiters for
their lawns on Saturday mornings, still shop at the
the death of her father and still harbours a lot of
same grocery stores- and none has been convinced
resentment.
to leave these “Radiant” beings. Their every word
and action is being watched and scrutinized for
Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 4,
malign supernatural influence. They are living
Strength 2, Dexterity 3, Stamina 3, Presence 4,
reminders of the growing divide within the Watch.
Manipulation 4, Composure 4.
For now the Alliance has tightened their borders
Skills: Crafts 1, Investigation 2, Medicine 2 (First
and pushed the Radiant to arm’s length; but no
Aid), Occult 1 (Taint), Politics 3, Athletics 3,
matter how many warnings the most respected
Brawl 1, Drive 1, Firearms 3 (Shotgun), Empathy
members give, the Radiant still tempt their younger
3, Intimidation 1, Persuasion 3, Socialize 4 (bars),
or more idealistic members. One day the NWA, and
Streetwise 1 (Suburbs), Subterfuge 3
Rachel Ruth, will have to make a decision about
Merits: Professional Training (Socialite - Politics,
whether that freeway corridor should be crossed or
Persuasion) 2, Barfly 2, Contacts 2 (Sport shooters,
barricaded.
Bar staff), Fame 1, Fixer 2, Iron Will 2,
Allies 3 (Automatic Heartland), Allies 1 (Radiant
Appearance Campaign) Resources 2, Safe Place 4 (her bar has
a fortified basement), Status 5 (Neighbourhood
Rachel could be the blond all-American sweetheart Watch Alliance), Striking Looks 1 (Powerful), Close
if it weren’t for large claw-scars on her right cheek; Quarters Combat 2, Firefight 2.
which she is rather proud of and has chosen to keep Virtue: Loyal. Rachel truly believes in community
despite a couple of Radiant diplomats offering to and is willing to go the extra mile to help her friends
heal it. When around the bar she favours loose- and neighbours, or just to make sure she remains
fitting shirts and jeans to help with a long day on in touch.

61
Vice: Prejudiced. Rachel blames the culture of
urban Detroit for creating the Darkspawn that
killed her father.
Colonel Alexander
Hill, Automatic
Heartlands Field
Commander
“No matter where you’re deployed it’s the same job:
cleaning up some Washington Chickenhawk’s shit.”
Alexander comes from as old a military family as
an African American can. His ancestors fought
for the Union in the American Civil War, with
the Harlem Hellfighters against the Kaiser in the
First World War, and then against the Japanese in
the Second, served on the U.S.S. Biddle during the
Cuban Missile Crisis. They probably were part of
some impressive battles back in Africa too. And
then, as Alexander often says, after kicking the ass
of Confederates, Emperors, and Commies, the Hills
found themselves lining the pockets of “oilocrats”
in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Fighting through Bush’s misadventures as they
destabilised the Middle East, then watching Obama
“chicken out” of fighting ISIL left Alexander unsure
of who he was. He was an American soldier and a
man who inherited a legacy of fighting for liberty
and justice. Never before had those two traits been
in conflict. After a lot of soul searching, prayer,
and conversations with his wife, Alexander decided
the only thing to do was to find a new battle, one
worth fighting, and he knew just where to look. It
was an open secret among his blood family that
Alexander’s uncle Kenneth had fought monsters in
the jungles of Vietnam and come back… not quite
right from the experience. The VA chalked it up to
“Agent Orange” and PTSD. The grizzly trophies
Kenneth kept in his northern Wisconsin lodge,
and his regular correspondence with government
agencies, belied the truth.
A whispered word to one of his uncle’s old
commands in the Pentagon, some paperwork was
filed, and soon Alexander was dispatched to U.S.
Army Tank Command in the suburb of Warren,
Michigan to head up a small, clandestine unit
operating on American soil. Alexander has taken
to his new assignment like a salmon to water -
swimming upstream while bears swipe at him from
the rocks, never feeling more alive. He is outgunned
(barely), perpetually outnumbered, and always tied
62
by red tape. His mission statement is simple:
Monitor “subversive supernatural elements within
the Detroit Metropolitan Area” so that a plan of
action can be formed when “appropriate resources
are available”. While his wife and daughter live in
a Royal Oak condo and believe he’s pushing paper,
Alexander is making life and death decisions that
may save or doom an entire American city.
He has been given extraordinary operational
freedom - a common occurrence in black ops
missions. However Alexander has little to work
with, less time to work with it, and a mission that
might save some politician’s career but not the city.
Today, Alex has a shifting opinion of the
different groups in and around Detroit. Each is a
potential ally or enemy. The Radiant Campaign
is what keeps this man up at night the most.
They are clearly “supernatural” in origin and some
are clearly politically ambitious. Per standing
government orders, they should be wiped out.
Democracy cannot survive when one person can
swing entire states to their purpose with a single
speech; the days of dictators, fascists and madmen
always appear on the horizon according to the cable
news channels, and if any of them had supernatural
powers? America would be fucked. These “Nobles”
have already enticed two of his front line personnel
to go AWOL and join their ranks - something
blackmail from foreign intelligence agencies and
brutal torture at enemy hands couldn’t get them
to do. But they’ve also had an overwhelmingly
positive effect on the city. His staff have observed
them using their powers to turn urban prairie into
urban farms, closing known hotbeds of crime and
corruption, and battling the entrenched monsters
to protect normal humans. Most importantly, he’s
seen them fight and witnessed first hand just how
powerful a Princess can be if stirred to wrath.
Following government policy could open a war on
a second front when Alex barely has the resources
he needs to fight on just one.
This choice between alliance and war doesn’t
need to be made now. His higher-ups are currently
embroiled in political squabbling over staff changes
and budgets and legalities, but when the chaos in
Washington dies down, it will need to be made.
And soon.
Appearance
Alexander is a soldier and dresses appropriately.
His hair is close shaved and his moustache is
regulation neat. Though only in his early forties
the stress of active duty has turned his hair salt
and pepper. For clothing Alexander naturally
wears combat fatigues on duty, off duty he wears
impeccably creased jeans with a shirt and jacket. Virtue: Loyal. To his boys, and to the ideals of
Physically he has a powerful muscular body. the United States. That’s why he’s so upset with
the disappointments in Washington.
Vice: Rigid. there are three ways to accomplish
Storytelling Hints any task. The right way, the wrong way, and the
army way. Alexander thinks in very rigid ways,
Alexander joined the military because he believed
part of the reason he finds it difficult to work
it stood for something, but the days of villains to
with the improvising hunters and the emotional and
be toppled on the battlefield look like a long lost
intuitive radiant.
past to his eyes. Even while fighting monsters that
embody evil on American soil all he can see is good
men risking their lives cleaning up after Washington
politicians. No matter how many monsters he hunts Thomas Cotton, The
down it won’t solve Detroit’s economic and cultural
issues or convince folks back in Washington to take Tyrant of Detroit
better care of their citizens. All he can do is
complete his mission and try to prevent the Taint “Look at them. Begging for someone to pay their
spreading beyond the city line. way out the pit they dug for themselves. The law
Alexander isn’t sure what he wants to do says they’re free, but in their hearts they’re still
once his tour of duty is over. Sometimes he slaves. They will always be slaves. They deserve to
thinks he’ll enter politics and run for office on be slaves!”
his veteran background, other times he plans to
buy a lodge in the Rocky Mountains with his Thomas Cotton has been around for a very long
wife and child and shun society, living off his time: born in the tail end of the 18th century to a
pension as a modern day hermit. Until then, he black butler and a comfort slave, Thomas was given
plans to run Automatic Heartland with military a life that was better than many poor white families
professionalism and scrupulous cataloguing of data in his day. In his youth Thomas was a house slave
and supernatural phenomena. He’s not a fan of the but as he grew older his duties increased until he
other Hunters in Detroit, seeing them as talented was single handedly running the plantation while
but slapdash amateurs and the Radiant as having his master gambled and entertained.
way too much power for people so emotional and Yet neither power nor comfort could make
without democratic oversight, but he also feels a Thomas satisfied in life. It was not just the
sense of kinship as they’re all just trying to do the inherent evil of slavery that any man might detest
best they can in the mess politicians dumped them on principal. It was the insult to his intelligence,
in. Thomas hated having to play the fool in public,
he hated that society would never acknowledge the
Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 4, Resolve 5, plantation’s success as his doing. In time his hatred
Strength 3, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4, Presence 3, broadened into a general hate for all white people,
Manipulation 2, Composure 4. and an absolute loathing for black people; who
Skills: Academics 2 (military history), he came to see as embodying every dehumanizing
Investigation 2, Medicine 2 (field medicine) Occult stereotype and slur, and worse, dragging him down
1 , Politics 2 (military), Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Drive by association.
2, Firearms 4 (rifles), Stealth 4, Survival 2 (Middle The Civil War brought great changes to
East), Weaponry 2, Animal Ken 1, Empathy 3 (my Thomas’ life, and some would say it also ended it.
boys), Expression 2, Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2, After the North won Thomas followed many of his
Socialize 2 (Soldiers), Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 2. fellow freemen north, settling in Detroit. Despite
Merits: Danger Sense 2, Good Time Management his skills and intellect Thomas was an old man
1, Library 2 (Occult), Library 3 (Investigation), and settled in his ways. He had trouble adapting
Library 3 (Streetwise), Professional Training 5 and the loss of stability completed what decades
(Soldier - Firearms, Survival, Expression), Hardy of routine evil had set in motion, the last vestiges
1, Quick Draw 1, Allies 4 (united states military), of Thomas’ Integrity fell away and he became a
Allies 3 (Neighbourhood Watch Alliance), Allies Mnemosyne.
2 (Local 911), Allies 2 (Radiant Campaign), No longer having any reason to suppress his
Resources 3, Small Unit Tactics 3, Status 3 (United hatred Thomas turned his back upon mankind.
States Army), Staff 5 (Computer, Investigation, He settled into a comfortable Nightscape and
Occult, Firearms, Stealth), Close Quarters Combat spent decades refining his abilities and sending
1, Firefight 2, Marksmanship 3. Darkspawn on petty, but very well planned, attacks

63
against whoever caught his attention. is always by his side.
It was the 1967 riots that lured Thomas It is only in private, usually in the Dark World,
back out of the Shadows, or rather, C.O.R.D.s’ where one sees the real Thomas. Quiet, thoughtful,
exploitation of the anger and confusion left in the and possessed of an absolute air of malice. He
Riot’s wake made a mark upon the Dark World says only what is necessary, but speaks with an
which intrigued Thomas. He joined the ranks unmistakable finality. On rare occasions, when
of fresh Darkened swelling C.O.R.D.s membership the mood strikes, Thomas will pause and share his
and began clawing his way to the top. Before inner feelings. He phrases it differently every time,
long he was the absolute unquestioned leader of but the theme remains constant: C.O.R.D.’s victory
C.O.R.D. and he began transforming it from yet proves the existence of some moral flaw in Detroit’s
another Dark Cult consumed with and doomed by citizenry, which in turn means they deserved every
it’s own vices into the monster it has become. cruelty C.O.R.D. inflicted. Speaking this way
about Detroit’s predominantly African American
citizens may contradict C.O.R.D.’s official doctrine
Appearance of blaming white people, but Thomas doesn’t give
a damn and neither will any member of C.O.R.D.
Thomas is an old African-American man with high up enough to hear Thomas speak privately.
bushy white hair, sideburns, and eyebrows. He Killing Thomas will not be enough to save
can create a flawless mask of warmth, kindness Detroit. It took someone of his exceptional
and laughter, but when he shows his true face his ability to mastermind C.O.R.D.’s rise to power,
features are almost always arranged into a scowl, but whoever ends up replacing him will have
and he glares out at the world through piercing enough skill to competently rule over an established
brown eyes encircled with bags and wrinkles. He cult. Even destroying C.O.R.D. utterly wouldn’t
is slightly pot-bellied, but apart from a limp he save Detroit without fixing the broken economy
is relatively fit for his (apparent) age. He carries and political climate, though removing C.O.R.D.’s
a walking-stick at all times and tends to dress in grip is a necessary step to accomplishing either.
conservative clothing: no bright colors, and nothing However Thomas’ death will paralyse C.O.R.D. in
that would draw undue attention to himself. a power struggle, creating the perfect opportunity
for the Light to press the attack, and with a less
brilliant leader Thomas’ death could mark the
Storytelling Hints beginning of C.O.R.D.’s decline.
It seems a cruel irony that a slave who once
Attributes: Intelligence 5, Wits 4, Resolve 3,
hated being the unacknowledged power behind the
Strength 1, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2, Presence 4,
throne could become the ruler of the city and still
Manipulation 5, Composure 3.
find himself the unacknowledged power behind the
Skills: Academics 2 (Race relations), Investigation
throne, but for his own safety Thomas still hides.
2, Occult 3 (The Darkness), Politics 5 (Detroit)
In C.O.R.D.s meetings Thomas arrives early,
Science 1, Drive 1, Stealth 2, Survival 2, Animal
takes a front row seat then nods in agreement
Ken 2, Empathy 3, Expression 2, Intimidation
to anyone speaking with a big fake senile smile
5 (African Americans), Persuasion 3, Socialize 1,
upon his face. If he places his right hand on his
Streetwise 1, Subterfuge 5 (Fake Senility, Fake
cane it means he agrees with the speaker, his left
Friendliness).
hand indicates disagreement, no hands mean he has
Merits: Danger Sense 2, Eidetic Memory 2, Good
no comment, while both hands means the speaker
Time Management 1, Indomitable 2, Language 1
should see him privately later. Through these
(French), Tolerance For Biology 1, Vice Ridden
simple means Thomas maintains absolute control
2, Allies 5 (Detroit Government), Anonymity 1,
over C.O.R.D. decisions.
Closed Book 5, Mystery Cult Initiation (C.O.R.D.)
Outside of C.O.R.D. events Thomas can usually
5, Retainer 3 (many Cottonpickers), Safe Place 5
be found in his local McDonald’s where the men of
(an extremely well-fortified home in a Nightscape
his neighbourhood socialize. He sits in a corner
near his apartment), Status 5 (C.O.R.D.), Staff
laughing, nodding, and smiling, as mostly mortal
5 (Investigation, Politics, Firearms, Intimidation,
neighbors drop in and out. All the while he
Persuasion), Table Turner 1, Takes One to Know
imagines lurid tortures and deaths for each of them,
One 1, Untouchable 1.
some of which come true. Occasionally a member
Virtue: Just. Once when he was young Thomas
of C.O.R.D. comes in under the pretext of getting
burned with anger at the injustice of the world.
food and is “attracted by the warmth and laughter”.
Now that he is old, bitter, and Tainted, he sees
They never address Thomas directly, but his cane

64
the world differently. In his eyes the world is just
around Detroit, but with the prophetic
after all, prejudice and suffering exist because the
abilities available to the Nobility it is not
victims deserve it.
much of a stretch to imagine the right
Vices: Arrogant. Thomas is certainly smarter
Princess finding herself guided to Sweetriver
than most people, he’s a certifiable genius both
Plantation by a visionary dream so that
intellectually and socially. But for Thomas simply
they might find the truth about Thomas
putting his gifts to as good a use as possible within
Cotton.
the limits of his background is not enough, the
Thematically a visit to Sweetriver
world has to see him do it, the world has to know
Plantation is a visit to the roots of Detroit’s
that he’s better than them.
trouble, the shameful and disgusting history
Hatred: Thomas hates everyone. He hates white
of slavery that still looms large over modern
people for enslaving him and thinking they’re
times. Through confronting the very worst
superior because of the colour of their skin. He
crimes of the past, Princesses may emerge
hates black people even more because he believes
with new strength and knowledge to face the
they “allowed themselves to be enslaved” and
problems of the present.
dragged him down by association. He hates every
other ethnic group just because he’s too full of
hate not to. This vice defines Thomas more than
anything else. Thomas is so consumed by hatred
that he needs people to be the caricatures he Cottonpickers
envisions so he has people to hate; and once he
When the brutal evils of plantation slavery have
creates that caricature through manipulation and
literally dehumanized a person, Cottonpickers are
politics he lashes out to destroy the target of his
the usual result. Their backs are permanently
loathing.
hunched by their labours and covered in scars from
(Thomas gains no benefit from the third dot
the whip. Bone dry cotton plants grow from their
Initiation into C.O.R.D. because he was already
arms with bristles like thorns and the cotton itself
Vice Ridden long before C.O.R.D. existed)
looks more like mould on rotten fruit than anything
Caligines: Face in the Crowd 4, Scapegoat
you could make clothing from. When they are
2, Gathering Shadows 4, I Am Your Master 4,
injured the hideous poisonous fibres in their blood
Open Hellmouth 1, Nowhere Untouched 2, Dark
escape to infect their attackers.
Ascension 4, Serpent’s Tongue 1, Evil Influence 2,
Naturally most Cottonpickers are found in the
Liar’s Heart 1.
American South, but there are Sugarpickers in
Persistent Tilt: Leg Wrack - though Thomas no
the Caribbean, Rubbermen in Congo, and similar
longer ages he is frozen as an arthritic old man and
Darkspawn anywhere else agricultural slavery rears
can barely walk without a cane.
its ugly head. Thomas Cotton has brought several
with him to serve as bodyguards, though “meat-
shields” might be a more accurate description.

Attributes: Intelligence 1, Wits 2, Resolve 1,

Sweetriver
Plantation
The plantation where Thomas grew up is
deserted and has fallen into ruin, but it
is still there. A blighted stain of Taint
upon beautiful Southern countryside. Even
the monsters have left in search of better
hunting elsewhere.
However the Nigtscape still echoes the
plantation’s most active days, and a visitor
might see Thomas’ face within. This
information is unlikely to be useful to a
Princess who hasn’t already seen Thomas
Strength 4, Dexterity 2, Stamina 5, Presence 2,
Manipulation 1, Composure 2
Skills: Crafts 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 2 (defensive),
Stealth 1, Survival 1, Weaponry 2, Intimidation 1
Health: 10
Willpower: 3
Vice: Pessimistic – Given what they’ve gone
through, can you blame them?
Virtue: Cautious – They would never have
survived otherwise.
Umbrae: Corruption of Blood, Faceless in the
Crowd, Loathsome Weapon (hands and arms are
covered in thorny cotton plants), Roteater.
Caligos: Avoid All Eyes, Flesh of My Flesh 3, I
Have You Now My Pretty 2, Voidblade 3, Zombie’s
Flesh 3
Merits: Fast Reflexes 3

65
A common variant of Cottonpickers have Miasma
Storytelling Hints
of Madness Umbra that inflicts the Beaten Down
C.O.R.D. wins because C.O.R.D. is playing every
Tilt through cotton spores. Thomas keeps a set of
side. Despite the promises of vengeance made to
these elite Cottonpickers but rarely lets them out
the lower ranks the leaders of C.O.R.D. don’t really
in public due to the attention they attract.
care who they hurt, so long as they’re hurting
somebody. They focus their schemes on urban
Detroit because it’s the easier target, it was the
Jenni August, The easier target even before C.O.R.D. began taking
over Detoit’s civic institutions. But that doesn’t
mean C.O.R.D. ignores the suburbs.
Voice of Ferndale Like most of C.O.R.D. suburban agents Jenni
is not an official member of C.O.R.D., or an
“Ok, I need to clear something up. I have nothing unofficial member for that matter, and has not been
against African-Americans, my issue is with the inducted into the cult’s worship. C.O.R.D. uses
culture of urban Detroit. It’s anti-intellectual, spite and resentment against white suburbanites
homophobic, transphobic, and... I’m going to say to recruit and motivate it’s pawns so it would
it: It’s racist!” be hard to explain why a guest invitation was
given to a white woman who built her career
Before she became a Mnemosyne Jenni was an on criticising Detroit’s predominantly African
ordinary teenager, and her fall into evil starts with American community. However Jenni takes her
a tale sadly too often told for a trans woman orders from the same puppet masters who sit in
in Detroit. After coming out to her parents in the highest ranks of C.O.R.D.
her mid-teens Jenni found herself faced with the Her orders are simple. Jenni works with other
choice of going back into the closet or fleeing to suburban agents of the Darkness to ensure the
the streets; Jenni chose the streets and bounced suburbs are distant and dismissive of the problems
between homeless shelters until a sympathetic facing Detroit’s black population. Her influence is
social worker told her where she could find real strongest in her home of Ferndale. In other suburbs
help. A charity organisation run by “good citizens her background alienates many potential viewers
who got into politics through community activism but even there she has become an underground
before shifting focus to LGBT issues”. figure, one who is popular with queer youth who
Jenni’s sponsors saw great potential in her and hear Jenni publicly saying the things they cannot;
supported her transition with a trip to Thailand, this gives her a measure of influence.
all expenses provided by C.O.R.D. embezzling from By design Jenni’s critiques are hard to
City Hall; for what relevance do human gender distinguish from legitimate progressive activism,
identities have to a force of fundamental evil? But and most of the social media personalities she
in exchange they taught Jenni to embrace her collaborates are perfectly honest in their beliefs
resentment and channel it into destroying the city and their desire to make a positive change. Her
and culture that abandoned her. By the time role isn’t to spread corruption, just keep would-
Jenni had proven herself enough to learn that her be suburban friends, or foes, of Detroit’s African-
sponsors had helped C.O.R.D. create that very American community from doing anything that
culture, she was too far gone to care. would rock the boat C.O.R.D. built.
When activists from the suburbs try to
campaign to send welfare and aid for struggling
Appearance families south of the 8-mile road Jenni paints them
as would be “white saviours” whose policies are
Jenni looks like the All-American Sweetheart, she designed to feed their own egos and they should
has blond hair (dyed), angelic blue eyes (contacts), instead fund “Detroit community activist’s” own
and passes perfectly. None of this is a secret and initiatives. When community leaders from Detroit
natural Jenni vs dyed Jenni is a perennial debate try to build bridges Jenni stands as a gatekeeper,
wherever her followers gather on social media. For telling her followers that no talks should take place
apparel she favours slightly revealing clothing, often until the ambassadors renounce their community
in the vein of the little black dress. Whether she’s for its attitude towards LGBT issues. Whenever
using her looks to attract viewers or exalting in someone tries to bridge the divide between city and
having the correct body is another unending online suburb Jenni is sure to have a defensible reason why
argument. her followers should oppose it while still believing

66
they are the ones fighting for progress. After all,
pointing out flaws is easy, the hard thing is building The Ghost of Jimmy
bridges despite those flaws.
But perhaps Jenni’s most important task is Hoffa
simply to be friendly. She is on good terms with
key leaders in a whole new generation of politically-
active suburbanites. Should the balance of power
ever shift northwards Jenni will have no trouble
getting the leaders alone, and from there it’s easy
to ship them off to a Tainted Place. Abandoning
“I do to others what they do to me, only worse.”
control of a city and starting from scratch is a
drastic step, but it never hurts to have an exit
Once a year, on the sweltering hot night of
plan. If the need arises Jenni and her counterparts
July 30th, a ghostly power manifests deep in the
will Taint a whole new generation of leaders
neighbourhoods of Detroit. This presence calls
before C.O.R.D.’s leaders put their cult, with it’s
out to the people hidden within their fortress-
theology and all its adherents onto the sidelines and
like homes, begging them to step outside, to meet
repackage the same policies of municipal decline
their neighbors, to form bonds and to take action
under a different brand.
together. Many ignore the calls. Some have
heeded them and rebuilt their streets into bastions
Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 3,
against the Darkness. A handful of the elderly even
Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2, Presence 3,
recognize the origin of the voice.
Manipulation 4, Composure 3.
No man holds as much respect and mystery
Skills: Computer 2, Investigation 1, Medicine
in the hearts of the working men of Detroit
1 (Transsexual health), Occult 2 (The Darkness)
than James Riddle Hoffa. Robert Kennedy once
Politics 2 (Detroit), Athletics 1, Drive 1, Stealth 1,
acknowledged him as the second most powerful
Survival 2, Animal Ken 1, Empathy 2, Expression
man in America after his brother John F. Kennedy.
3 (Social media), Persuasion 2, Streetwise 2,
He commanded the political power to wield the
Subterfuge 2 (Online).
American Teamsters Union, 2,000,000 voters at
Merits: Interdisciplinary Specialty (Social media)
its height, to great effect. He used these voters
1, Library 2 (Politics), Allies 1 (Detroit city
as a bargaining chip to increase the power of
government), Allies 3 (Detroit online activist
the American worker while railing against the
community), Allies 5 (Suburban C.O.R.D. agents),
corruption of big business. Numerous political
Contacts (Detroit suburbs), Fame 1, Hobbyist
investigations tried to taint him as a communist
Clique (Expression), Mentor 4 (her handler
sympathizer. All of them failed. Senators and
from C.O.R.D.) Striking Looks 1 (All-American
Presidents came to his office to court those votes.
sweetheart), Resources 1 (Detroit Have).
And Hoffa was undoubtedly corrupted by this much
Virtue: Loyal. C.O.R.D. helped Jenni out when
power, serving time in jail for bribery of a grand
she was in a bad place, for that she shows as
juror and fraud, working within the mafia machine
much loyalty as a Creature of The Darkness can.
of Detroit to further both his own power and the
With her warped Mnemosyne mindset she doesn’t
power of organized labor nationwide.
think C.O.R.D. did anything wrong for feeding the
This mafia connection is what tied his ghost to
transphobia that put her into that situation in the
this earthly plane. Jimmy’s death was never solved,
first place.
but it most definitely came at the hands of Detroit’s
Vices: Competitive. In the dog-eat-dog world of
organized criminals. Nothing else about his death is
online celebrities, if people aren’t talking about you
known, no one has ever discovered where or how he
you’re falling behind. Jenni is always fighting for
was killed, and only Jimmy knows at whose hands
the spotlight.
he died. This has led the location of Hoffa’s corpse
Corrupt: Jenni has no formal status, but she
to become a source of urban legends throughout the
does have influence, and she uses it for her own
United States- buried everywhere from the endzone
gain and to further C.O.R.D.’s evil agenda.
of Giants Stadium in New Jersey (disproven after
Caligines: Walk in Darkness 3, Evil Influence 2,
its demolition in 2010) or sealed in an oil barrel and
Liar’s Heart 1
compressed in a junkyard before being shipped as
so much scrap metal to Japan. The mystery of his
ultimate killers and the location of his remains are
the Anchors which bind him to Detroit. Until these
mysteries are solved, Jimmy continues to manifest.

67
Appearance neither redemption for the city nor power over it,
but vengeance. When he is not compelled by the
James Hoffa’s ghostly appearance is that which he anniversary of his disappearance he is scouring the
held at the height of his power- a few inches shorter city for relations to the Mafia men who killed him
than the average adult man, broad shouldered, with in 1975, to deliver the same fate to them with the
a fashionable (for the ‘50s) haircut covering his aid of a small mystery cult dedicated to his service;
balding hair. When confronted with the fact that including some hunters of Local 911.
he is most definitely dead, his body begins to decay Most of the men responsible for his death are
into a more skeletal husk and stops his passionate long gone themselves, but their relations live on.
advocacy, instead giving in to his corrupt nature This year, Hoffa has two targets in his sights.
and becoming a destructive entity. Tony Gerando is currently in lockup in the city
jail for manslaughter (he swears the whole thing
was self-defense), waiting for the requisite bribes
Storytelling Hints and threats to reach DPD headquarters to secure
his release. Tony’s dad did share the location of
Jimmy Hoffa’s ghost has become a pawn in
Hoffa’s body with his son before he died of cancer
the struggle between the Radiant Campaign and
in 2002, and Tony likes to taunt his cohorts with
C.O.R.D. His supernatural essence retains an
promises that he’ll take them where the corpse is
invisible influence over Detroit, an echo of the
someday. But if Jimmy’s little mystery cult isn’t
more mundane influence he once held in life.
able to reach a made man, Hoffa will settle for
When Jimmy stands for something he believes in,
Tony’s illegitimate cousin Martina Fernandez, an
Detroit’s citizens stand with their back a little bit
ordinary and defenceless student attending Wayne
straighter for weeks after his appearance. But
State University.
Jimmy’s power to inspire and rally the people of
the city is matched only by his susceptibility to
Rank: 2 Attributes: Power 5, Finesse, 4,
corruption. “The ends justify the means” is the
Resistance, 4 Manifestations: Discorporate,
mantra of a villain, and Jimmy was all about the
Image Numina: Emotional Aura, Left Handed
ends. Should Hoffa fall to temptation corruption
Spanner, Omen Trance, Sign
will sink its roots deeper into Detroit.
Ban: Hoffa’s power to inspire groups and his
Every year his manifestation begins a three
susceptibility to corruption cannot be overstated.
way battle between the Radiant, Local 911, and
He cannot perform an action within the sight of
C.O.R.D. to harness his power. The Teamsters
mortals that would disgrace him in the eyes of a
Union halls where Jimmy once spoke become
blue collar worker.
fortresses and the site of pitched battles and sieges
Bane: Metal from a 1975 Mercury Marquis
as each side tries to ensure that when Hoffa appears
Brougham, the model of car he was last seen riding
they are there to speak to him. For the Radiant and
in with mafia muscle the night he “disappeared”
Local 911 it is also a time of delicate diplomacy as
forever.
they divide the halls between them, for each group
has their own political agenda they want Hoffa to
endorse. Local 911 sees Hoffa as a mystical savior
with the power to return Detroit to manufacturing Louie the Fish
greatness. The Radiant have no formal political
positions other than fighting the Darkness, but the As Detroit sinks into ruins, horrors and monsters
youth of Detroit’s Nobility (and the fact many of from its past return to haunt its present. Louie
them are from out of town) means they usually the Fish dates back over a century, in life he was
push for progressive issues and a future of new a bootlegger. A nobody two-bit gangster who
rather than old industries. Thus far diplomacy smuggled alcohol and fought against rival firms for
prevails because both parties agree the other is far the notorious Purple Gang.
better than giving the Darkness access to Jimmy Louie’s fall (if you do not consider a vicious
and the power he presents. amoral gangster to have already fallen) took place
A Grace or Troubadour that reaches Jimmy after the Purple Gang decided to “teach a lesson”
before the Darkness could learn invaluable skills to one of their rivals in the wrong safehouse. The
about how to push Mortal humans to decisive resulting Taint freed a vicious pack of Darkspawn.
action for good. But little does anyone realize, The Fish was in the wrong place at the wrong
the brightness of the Radiant and the temptation time and found himself attached to the team
of the Darkness are simply distractions to Hoffa. of experienced old hands sent to clean out the
The Ghost has a goal all his own. He seeks Darkspawn before the usual “consultant” could

68
deal with the Taint.
The shock of being attacked by supernatural
monsters damaged his Integrity and Darkened his
soul. He became obsessed with the Darkness,
a force that could appear anywhere, command
monsters, and was taking it’s cut from all the gangs.
That sounded like the winning team, and with his
Integrity shot to hell by a lifetime of crime he was
practically a Mnemosyne already.
Appearance
In his first life Louie dressed like an actual gangster,
with a typical 1920s men’s suit and trilby hat.
Today it’s all about the branding. Gangsters and
bootleggers like to blend in; immortal bootleggers
don’t need to interact with the public but
they do need to impress clients with a high
tolerance for weird, and immortal bootleggers
don’t spend money on rent leaving more cash
for their wardrobe. Louie’s new look is more
inspired by Hollywood gangsters than the real
deal, with pinstripe suits, a fancier trilby, and
silk handkerchief in the pocket. All worn over an
athletic Italian body frozen in the prime of life,
before the criminal vocation took its toll.
Storytelling Hints
Despite his name, Louie does not have any natural
affinity to water. What he has is a knack (and
Caligines) for navigating the Dark World and
Contacts all over the United States. He has no
friends or loyalty beyond the Darkness itself, but
his connections are impressive and spread beyond
other Creatures of the Darkness and mortals. Most
of the time The Fish works as a middle man and
brokers deals and transportation for rare illegal
goods. In Detroit C.O.R.D.’s control over municipal
money and the municipality make them a reliable
customer and if the Radiant spot C.O.R.D. using
some strange power alien to the Darkness it’s
probably something they acquired through Jimmy.
In exchange, Jimmy gets the opportunity to indulge
his vice or hard cash.
Jimmy is as slippery as a fish and this makes
him a hard target to take on. Players will likely
have a better chance if they can open a channel of
information out of C.O.R.D. and ambush Jimmy
when he’s making a delivery than they would if
they simply tried to track him down. The Fish has
absolutely no loyalty to C.O.R.D. so if he feels he
is in danger or that the Radiant are starting to get
the upper hand he won’t hesitate to leave town for
good.
69
Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2,
Strength 3, Dexterity 4, Stamina 3, Presence 3,
Manipulation 3, Composure 3.
Skills: Crafts 1, Investigation 1, Occult 1,
Athletics 3, Brawl 2 (Dirty Moves), Drive 4
(Car Chases), Larceny 3, Stealth 3, Survival
2, Weaponry 2, Expression 1, Intimidation 3,
Persuasion 2 (Negotiations), Socialize 2, Streetwise
(Outdated knowledge) 3
Merits: Crack Driver 2, Fleet of Foot 3, Hardy 1,
Contacts 3 (Mnemosyne, Arms Dealers, Criminal),
Resources 2, Professional Training 3 (Criminal,
Larceny, Streetwise, Drive) Striking Looks 1
(Gangster), Cheap Shot 2, Street Fighting 3
Virtue: Honest. With no courts or lawyers in
the occult arms business you’ve got to have a
reputation for honesty and keeping your word.
Vices: Greedy. Jimmy doesn’t have much use for
money or enjoy blowing it on wine and parties. But
the thrill of chasing the next score, that consumes
him.
Cowardly. Jimmy survives because he always
gets out while the going is good.
Caligines: Nowhere Untouched 2, Walk in
Darkness 3, Dark Ascension 4, Shadow Step 5, Face
in the Crowd 4
Citizens of Detroit
Detroit is full of weirdos, freaks, artists, druggies,
firefighters, crooks, arsonists, cops, gangbangers,
serial rapists, heroes, and regular folks just trying
to keep their heads down and stay out of trouble.
The following are simplified stats for NPCs whom
players may encounter.
Firefighter
“Don’t panic, I’m here to help!”
Firefighting requires exceptional bravery, physical
strength, and stamina, as well as extensive training
and certification. Few are left in Detroit who are
willing to risk their lives on a daily basis to save
a dying city, so most Detroit firefighters are either
grizzled old-timers or probies who won’t last long
before burning out.
Appearance
Usually male, rarely older than middle-age, always
in excellent physical condition. Working in a city
that seems to be hell-bent on consuming itself,
Detroit’s firefighters are often hollow-eyed and
unshaven, and can be seen clutching a cigarette in
one hand and a styrofoam cup of coffee in the other.
Storytelling Hints
Detroit’s firefighters are legendary in their field for
enduring a brutal workload, a civilian population
with an ingrained culture of arson, extensive
government corruption and meddling, criminally
low pay, ancient and degraded equipment, and
generally deplorable working conditions. Many
are disillusioned and bitter, and all are exhausted.
Players may find themselves helping firefighters
with an ordinary fire or when they are ambushed by
criminals or monsters. Firefighters may be called
to stop the players from burning down Tainted
structures.
Firefighting (dice pool 6) — Working day in and
and out means Detroit’s firefighters have gotten
good at their work.
Fireaxe (dice pool 5) — Fire axes are supposed
to be used to break into a burning building,
unfortunately in Detroit they are occasionally
used in self-defence. While fire is used as a
weapon against Darkspawn, not by Darkspawn,
firefighters trying to save a Tainted building can
find themselves face to face with the monsters
someone tried to burn. Elsewhere Darkened
mortals, or just regular but sadistic mortals, might
try to ambush a firefighter for one reason or
another.
Situational Awareness (dice pool 4) — A sad
fact of Detroit is that sometimes people set
ambushes for firefighters.
Journalist/Blogger
“That’s very interesting. Could you elaborate?”
Journalists are professional reporters employed
by news agencies who investigate stories, verify
facts, interview witnesses and persons-of-interest,
and compose informative articles for public
consumption. Bloggers are often amateurs, though
some are popular enough to support themselves
partially or entirely with ad-revenue from their
blogs or websites. Appearance
Appearance
Most professional journalists have graduated from
college with a degree in writing or journalism,
so they’re generally not younger than their mid-
twenties. Bloggers can be any age, though teen
bloggers find it difficult to be taken seriously and
70
often have issues with transportation and gaining
access to “adults-only” locations.
Storytelling Hints
Many journalists are chain-smokers and/or heavy
drinkers (when they’re not on duty). Television
journalists covering a story in Detroit usually
travel in large vans and are accompanied by a
driver/technician, makeup assistant, and security
personnel. Bloggers tend to be younger and more
tech-savvy, though this is far from a rule. Both
are characterized by insatiable curiosity, and a
burning desire to find the truth, to discover “the
real story”. Justice and Honesty are common
Virtues for journalists and bloggers, while their
burning need to discover and expose the truth (even
if doing so harms one of their informants) makes
them prone to sometimes-foolhardy Curiosity.
Interview (dice pool 3) — People love talking
about themselves, and will sometimes let useful
information slip (or fall tellingly silent) with just
a few simple questions.
Investigate (dice pool 5) — Journalism requires
extensive fact-finding, which often involves sifting
through piles of documents and mountains of data.
Subterfuge (dice pool 4) — Journalists are often
aware, whether from training or experience, when
they are being lied to, or when key information is
being left out.
Juggalo/Juggalette
“I’m down with the clown ‘til I’m dead in the
ground, muhfucker! Whoop whoop!”
Fans of the Detroit-based horrorcore rap duo
“I.C.P.” (Insane Clown Posse) are known for their
rowdy (and often senselessly violent) behavior;
their total lack of respect for authority, laws,
and private property; their prodigious appetite for
drugs of all types; their almost superhuman energy-
levels; and their complete and unquestioning
devotion to all other members of their extended
“family” of Juggalos.
Juggalos are mostly young Caucasian males, and
tend to either be rail-thin or very overweight.
They often dress in outlandish and colorful clothing
(especially wifebeaters, cargo pants with numerous
chains, and/or enormous, baggy T-shirts), wear
their hair in the “spider-legs” style, and drape
themselves in hatchetman logos/paraphernalia.
Females (known as “Juggalettes”) are encouraged
to dress provocatively. Many ICP fans of both
genders sport extensive tattooing.
Storytelling Hints
Juggalos are primarily motivated by hedonism,
though they will to go extreme lengths to protect
members of their “family,” even those they’ve
never met before. Reasoning with them is next to
impossible, unless one knows their “Dark Carnival”
theology well enough to make an argument that
Shaggy 2 Dope and Violent J would want them to
do (or not do) whatever it is you’re asking of them.
Juggalos particularly despise racists, bigots, child
molesters, and perpetrators of domestic violence:
they frequently use such allegations as justification
for delivering a round of vigilante justice.
Radiant Campaign in order to get support with
both supernatural and natural problems. Others
are getting support from charity groups that are a
secret front for C.O.R.D.
Diagnosis (dice pool 4) — While not doctors, in
Detroit’s overstretched medical service sometimes
they are required to diagnose patients without
support from a doctor.
Treatment (dice pool 4) — While much of a
homecare nurses work is routine, medical practice
always requires skill and training.
Empathy (dice pool 4) — With resources
shortages sometimes the only help a nurse can offer
is a sympathetic ear.
Drive (dice pool 3) — Homecare nurses spend a
lot of time behind the wheel getting to where they
are needed.

Carousing (dice pool 4) — Juggalos are experts

at consuming drugs and alcohol. Priest
Brawling (Specialty: Mosh Pit) 3 — Juggalo
“Tell me, my child: what troubles you this night?”
parties are messy affairs.
Priests (also known as imams, pastors, presbyters,
Nurse, Homecare and rabbis) are religious leaders who conduct
worship services, administer religious education,
“Look, I’d love to tell you more about what I saw, care for their place of worship and sacred texts, act
but I’ve got two more patients to see tonight, on as pillars of their communities, and provide ethical
opposite sides of the city, and I’d really like to get and emotional counselling to their congregants (and
home before the crazies come out.” sometimes non-believers). In parts of Detroit there
is less social stigma about seeing a priest than a
Homecare nurses are trained medical professionals therapist, and some priests have become trained
(either RNs or LPNs) who make house-calls to therapists to better serve their community. Priests
administer healthcare. In a dangerous city like are usually male, though this varies with religion
Detroit, homecare nurses are often the only care and denomination.
available to the elderly and homebound, and are
sometimes their only link with the outside world. Appearance
Priests dress in holy vestments while acting in
Appearance
their official capacity, but many are allowed to
Homecare nurses are usually female, and often wear ordinary street clothes in their day-to-day
harried-looking. Detroit is an enormous city, and lives (though some are required by their vows
many drive more than a hundred miles each day to to wear badges of their faith, such as a white
attend all of their patients. collar, a yarmulke, or a taqiyah). Priests can have
nearly any appearance or physical build, though
most priests are not young, and their somewhat
Storytelling Hints
sedentary lifestyle inclines them towards stoutness.
Most nurses are too overworked to get involved with
a Princess’ extra-curricular activities. However
Storytelling Hints
having contact with many vulnerable and isolated
patients, the sort of people the supernatural likes Being a priest requires empathy, good public
to prey upon, means that many have second hand speaking, and strong faith. Priests can be soft-
knowledge of the supernatural. Unlucky nurses spoken and kindly old father-figures, or exciting
might find themselves ambushed by monsters young firebrands who whip their congregations into
when driving through deserted neighbourhoods. ecstatic frenzies; detached ascetics who favor the
Some nurses have associated themselves with the spirit and eternity over the flesh and the present, or

71
crusaders for social justice and government reform. Storytelling Hints
Whatever they do and however they operate, they
Unlike garden-variety arsonists who use fire as
do it with conviction.
means to an end (usually revenge, insurance fraud,
Few priests in Detroit fight the Darkness in
or entertainment), pyromaniacs are obsessed with
Jesus’ name. It used to be different but the
the beauty and power of fire. For some, known
Talented Tenth decided it would be more virtuous
as pyrophiliacs, there is a sexual or erotic element
to evacuate their congregations to safety than die
to starting fires or watching flames consume a
fighting a loosing battle against C.O.R.D., the
building. As a rule, pyromaniacs always watch their
priests who knew how to use a gun left on the
own handiwork, in person if possible.
last buses. Exceptions are typically aligned with
Firestarter (dice pool 4) — Pyromaniacs are fairly
the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance (the Talented
good at setting fires (duh).
Tenth were an urban organisation). However
Larceny (dice pool 3) — Pyromaniacs can pick
priests are often the first port of call when a terrified
up tricks for breaking and entering from online
member of the congregation starts talking about
message boards, as well as avoiding or disabling
“demons” or monsters and make a point of knowing
simple security systems.
who they should pass the information on to.
Stealth (dice pool 4) — Since they want to remain
close enough to watch their handiwork but not get
Empathy (dice pool 5) — As moral leaders in their
caught when the cops show up, hiding is usually a
communities, congregants often turn to their priests
pyromaniac’s only option.
for advice, guidance, and consolation in times of
stress and uncertainty.
Theology (dice pool 5) — Priests undergo years Scrapper
of training and testing in the theology and history
of their faith. “[grunting] Turn it to the left! No, my left! [loud
Exorcism (dice pool 4) — While the average crash, followed by cursing]”
priest is not equipped to banish ghosts, demons,
or other supernatural entities, most have sufficient Scrappers are people (usually unemployed men)
theological training and Integrity to make a decent who make a living finding and reselling scrap metal
attempt at exorcism, if a trained professional is not to junkyards. Some work carefully within the law,
available. while others are less scrupulous.

Appearance
Pyromaniac Scrappers dress in hard-wearing, functional
So… fucking… beautiful… [grunting and heavy clothing, including steel-toed boots, denim overalls,
breathing] heavy jackets, and leather gloves. Smart scrappers
wear hardhats, as well as eye- and ear-protection.
Pyromaniacs are usually young males, often
unemployed. For many, setting fires begins as a Storytelling Hints
way to reduce boredom or relieve stress, which
Most scrappers just want to keep their head
quickly escalates out of control. Pyromaniacs often
down, stay safe, and make a buck. In Detroit
exhibit poor impulse control, and may show signs
not all abandoned buildings are as empty as
of obsession with firefighting and its paraphernalia;
they appear and so most scrappers will encounter
some like to hang around firehouses and ask the
the occult during their career. Some are willing
firefighters annoying questions, even going so far as
to sell information they uncover, or trade it
to set false alarms (or set real ones) just to get a
(perhaps with a portion of their earnings) to one
chance to see or talk to firefighters in action.
of Detroit’s factions for protection. Others are
fiercely independent and opposed to “taxation”.
Appearance Either way, most scrappers will avoid getting in
deep enough with any group to attract the ire of
Though though they all take steps to cover their its enemies.
trails, they will sometimes show signs that they
have recently been near a fire: they might have Awareness (dice pool 2) — While scrappers spend
soot or ash on their shoes or under their fingernails, a lot of time out in the world, they’re usually
there might be a lingering scent of smoke in their focused on their work, which tends to be in places
clothing or hair, or burn marks on their clothing. where few other people are nearby.

72
Scrapping (dice pool 4) — Scrappers make their
living (or at least their side-hustle) by removing
large, unwieldy chunks of metal from wherever they
can find it.
Street Smarts (Dice pool 4) — It wouldn’t do to
walk into a gang’s safehouse or a monster’s nest,
so scrappers learn how to look for signs before they
wander into somewhere dangerous. Even working
near a Tainted Place can be dangerous these days,
as monsters have become comfortable hunting in
broad daylight and scrapping can make a lot of
loud noise. Scrappers who have protection from
one of Detroit’s factions typically work in their
territory. Scrappers without protection might do
the same, judging it better to risk the ire of humans
than monsters, or they may keep an ear out for
recent battles where the Darkness was defeated
and work the unclaimed neighbourhoods before
the monsters return. Without some strategy for
avoiding Darkspawn a Scrapper rarely lasts long.
Sex Worker
they rely on their wits and street smarts to know
which streets are safe: Safe from the cops, safe from
the monsters, safe from the wrong sort of client.
Awareness (dice pool 4) — Sex workers need to
keep their wits sharp and constantly be on the
lookout for danger, since they can’t call the police
for help.
Seduction (dice pool 4) — Sex workers are trained
to seduce, and do it well.
Knife-fighting (dice pool 1) — Knives are cheaper
and easier to conceal than guns, and quieter.
Unfortunately, most sex workers are not very
strong or athletic, and rarely trained in combat
techniques.
Union Representative
“I’m sorry you feel that way, but my compatriots
made their demands very clear. I’ll go and tell ‘em
to put down their tools; as of this moment, we are
on strike.”

“Y’all lookin’ for a good time?” A union rep (a.k.a. “union steward” or “shop
steward”) is a rank-and-file worker who is elected
Usually from the poorest backgrounds, though by his or her peers to represent them in
many are kidnapped from their homes, forcibly negotiations and defend their interests. He or she
addicted to drugs, and compelled and to enter the typically acts as liaison between union leadership
trade to feed their new habit. Most sex workers are and membership, passing information in both
female, and often young; they almost always enter directions.
the trade at a young age (frequently well below the
age of consent), and few survive for more than a Appearance
few years in such a dangerous occupation. While
high-class call girls can live the good life, these Union reps can have almost any appearance,
traits represent a less fortunate sex-worker. though it’s easier for old-timers to get elected,
since everybody in the shop knows them by
name. In dress and mannerisms, they tend to be
indistinguishable from their peers.
Appearance
Streetwalkers tend to dress in provocative clothing,
Storytelling Hints
often garish and extremely revealing.
Detroit’s Unions have fallen far from the day when
presidents came to court their vote, but old union
Storytelling Hints
loyalties remain strong. Union reps have status
Sex workers are among the lowest of the low in and prestige in Detroit which makes them useful
society’s eyes. Despised by moralists, dehumanized allies in organising the public. Most union reps are
by those who engage their services, and routinely on good terms with at least one hunter from Local
abused by their employers and pimps, sex workers 911, and they might also be one of those hunters,
lead grim, painful lives with little hope of especially if they represent the United Automobile
improvement or rescue. Many turn to drugs for Workers.
escape and comfort, which often accelerates their
demise. Blue Collar Community (dice pool 4) — Unions
Many sex-workers work for the Lost Boys, those do more than just negotiate for higher wages. They
who do tend to work in brothels rather than the are pillars of the blue collar community and were
street and are kept safe from monster attacks. This once the heart of left wing political activism. Union
does not mean they have a good time. Elsewhere reps have knowledge have connections and influence

73
in their community. hobby requires the ability to run, jump, and climb
Expression (dice pool 4) — Union leaders are fairly well.
forces of personality all unto themselves- able to Larceny (dice pool 1) — Seasoned urbexers
threaten, comfort, and cajole both management become experienced at breaking and entering,
and members into action. as well as avoiding or disabling simple security
Politics (dice pool 3) - A union is only as powerful systems.
as its ability to affect change. Like it or not, Running Away (dice pool 5) — Urbexers are
this means they have become intertwined with emphatically not combatants, and will attempt to
local politics. Any union rep worth their salt flee at the first sign of danger.
knows which representative to call and put pressure
on, which news outlets to leak stories to, all for
maximum effect. Freemen of Detroit
Merits: Inspiring 3, Dice Pool 4
In the World of Darkness powerful supernatural
beings like the Radiant are a minority of
Urbexer supernatural phenomena. More commonly you find
“These empty spaces are so beautiful! They’re people or objects whose capabilities blur the lines
practically sacred.” between the mundane and the occult. Below are
generic NPCs who straddle that line, each group
Typically from the college town of Ann Arbor or is tied into Detroit’s culture or the unique socio-
the suburbs of Detroit, self-styled “urban explorers” economic pressures of living in a dying city and so,
tend to be well-off white kids who enjoy the thrill while far far rarer than ordinary mortals, there are
of entering abandoned and condemned structures. enough of each that it would not be unusual for a
Many are amateur historians or photographers, Princess to encounter them if she moves in the right
who come to see and document the forgotten places circles.
from Detroit’s past (but not to help the people still
struggling to live there). Alley Men
Appearance He stares at you blankly before walking on.

Experienced and competent urbexers wear Detroit has seen entire communities and
practical clothing while pursuing their hobby: neighbourhoods dwindle until only ruined buildings
sturdy jeans and hoodies or jackets in dark colors and urban prairie remains. Sometimes the old
are the norm, especially paired with steel-toed inhabitants found new communities and jobs far
boots. Inexperienced urbexers often show up in away, and sometimes they slipped between the
their street clothes and sneakers. cracks in the system.
Literally.
Storytelling Hints Alley Men come from the ranks of scrappers,
modern homesteaders, homeless, and others who
Generally speaking, urbexers are young white live on their wits by digging through Detroit’s
suburbanites; play up how out-of-touch they are forgotten corners. Sometimes, without social ties to
with the daily struggles of actual Detroiters. keep them solid, these lonely souls find themselves
Urbexers almost always carry camera equipment slipping through the cracks in the city to move
(well-off urbexers might bring headcams or about unseen and find lost things that help them
quadcopter drones), and smart ones carry cell survive even as they drift further away from
phones, walkie-talkies, and emergency whistles. humanity.
For many, their enthusiasm and curiosity outstrip
their better judgement, leading them to become
Appearance
injured (by falling, electrocution, or sharp bits of
metal) or trapped (by collapsing infrastructure, Not all Alley Men are homeless but all are isolated,
guard dogs, hostile squatters, or of course their appearance tends to reflect that and even
Darkspawn). those with appropriate facilities show little regard
for how others might perceive them. While
Academics (dice pool 4) — Many urbexers are typically found in urban Detroit, many Alley Men
currently—or were recently—attending college. are white, left behind when their communities fled
Athletics (dice pool 4) — Urbexers’ very physical the city. Younger Alley Men tend to be black. Most

74
Alley Men are in fact men as the greater social
support available to women can prevent women
from developing the Alley Men’s occult abilities.
As the opioid crisis devastates communities
Alley Men have started to appear in suburbs
like Fraser. Their appearance reflects suburban
fashions and demographics, but despite that they
maintain the same shabby appearance as their
urban counterparts.
Storytelling Hints
Most Alley Men don’t consider what they do to be
supernatural. They think of themselves as ordinary
folk just trying to survive who’re lucky enough
to be really good at getting around the city and
scavenging for supplies or goods to sell. If on
occasion they goes through a door that doesn’t
exist and find themselves in a building that the
vultures haven’t picked clean, how would they know
it’s unnatural? The door and the building look
normal. A few work in pairs to handle tougher
jobs like scrapping and some Alley Men wistfully
dream of once again being part of a community,
but either circumstances or their own issues makes
that unlikely — if it was easy they’d have done it
already. If an Alley Man ever came in from the
cold he would loose his supernatural abilities.
While Alley Men have no connection to any
of the factions in Detroit, they often know about
them and might come to the Radiant or Local 911
with a tip off if doing so would benefit them. They
usually avoid Heartland (and government officials
in general) and few like the Lost Boys though their
abilities tend to result in an instinctual deference to
the local gang whenever they set foot on gang turf
which means the Lost Boys are willing to accept
their presence, if perhaps after taking tribute. But
mostly they use their abilities to stay far away from
Darkspawn and are content with that.
Cracks in the City (dice pool 8, rote action) —
Without social connections to keep them solid Alley
Men slip through the cracks of the city, allowing
them to get around with supernaturally ease and
see what others don’t expect them to see.
Face in the Crowd (dice pool 5) — While not
particularly good at sneaking, Alley Men tend to
blend into the background.
Running Away (dice pool 4) — Alley Men are
not fighters and usually run from danger, however
they’re often not in great physical shape.
Poor Social Skills (dice pool 2) — Alley Men
usually don’t have more social contact than buying
something at the corner store or selling scrap metal.
Their social skills have atrophied and some have
seen their mental health decline as a consequence
of isolation.

Cracks in the City

Alley Men are a minor template and can be found in every urban environment. They are most
commonly found in places with high rates of homelessness or places which have seen communities
collapse, such as Detroit.
Alley Men gain a free Streetwise Speciality tied to a specific area, two free dots of Anonymity,
and benefit from the following supernatural advantages:
• Mundane Streetwise rolls become a Rote Action.
• Alley Men have a single dot of Potency, but only to resist supernatural effects which find
their location, history, or personal details.

• When travelling divide the time taken by Streetwise as your character takes hidden short
cuts, times bus routes perfectly, and otherwise exploits their knowledge of the street to move
around.
• By spending a point of Willpower your character can find a desired item by rolling Streetwise
- Availability. A safe place to crash for the night is Availability two. Your characters can

75
 only do this when not being watched, though if he turns a corner in the middle of a footrace
he could vanish before his perusers get their eyes back on him. A quick escape is treated as
Availability 3.

Dramatic Failure: Your character finds themselves face to face with one of the other creatures
that exists between the cracks or is trapped in the strange interstitial space their powers let
them access. Neither survival or remaining human can be assured.
Failure: Nothing special happens.
Success: Your character finds a seemingly ordinary door, narrow alleyway, or other passage
that doesn’t actually exist. Or for a brief moment a real passage leads somewhere it shouldn’t.
The passage leads to a forgotten place, an abandoned building or a structure that never made
it past the planning phases. Whatever the character is looking for can be found inside.
Exceptional Success: As above, and the point of Willpower is refunded.

Being an Alley Man has it’s disadvantages too. All Alley Men are attached to a specific urban area
(the one defined by their Streetwise Speciality) and have the Phobia Condition; they fear leaving
those familiar environs. If they do leave they cannot use any of their supernatural benefits until
they return. In addition Alley Men are forbidden from having any Social Merit except Anonymity,
Resources, or Safe Place, and they find it hard to acquire Resources.
If an Alley Man reconnects with society they loose their supernatural nature. Most don’t
mind. Most never realised they had one.

Excavators
“Hands off! I found that.”
You can find all sorts of things when digging
through a city’s bones for scraps to sell. Old
family albums full of treasured memories. War
trophies from Afghanistan or Vietnam. And in
the world of Darkness you can find weirder things
too. Excavators found something and it changed
them. It’s not supernatural transformation (if that
happens these stats won’t fit), but in finding a hint
of a secret world the Excavator sees something more
than the daily grind for survival. They find hope
and meaning hidden in the crumbing foundations
of a dying city and they want more.
Appearance
Excavators can be blue collar contractors with a
steady pay-check who found something while on
the job, or unemployed scavengers who made their
discovery while looking for anything they could sell
or tearing a building apart for scrap metal. Their
general appearance and attire reflects their origins
and affluence, though most favour tough workmen’s
clothing even when at home. Their ability to dig
through Detroit has become a core part of their self
image.
Storytelling Hints
In the World of Darkness anyone might find
themselves in the possession of a simple
supernatural object, a simple lucky coin that
actually works or a phone that occasionally gets
text messages from dead relatives. Many dispose
of these objects as soon as they realise what they
have, others keep them and make use of them.
Excavators are more specific. To Excavators
finding supernatural objects is more important than
having supernatural objects. For some it’s a source
of hope, like buying a lottery ticket. Next time
they’ll find the big prize, the one item with enough
power to let them retire into the good life. For
others it’s an almost spiritual quest that gives
meaning to days struggling to survive. The items
they find are special. They’re Detroit. And one
day when the city is rebuilt they’ll sit in a museum
and keep the new Detroit connected to it’s history;
with a tasteful plaque about the man who found
them next to the display.
While far too disorganised to form into
Mystery Cult and lacking any actual mythology or
theology (most Excavators practice a mainstream
religion), Excavators often know of each other and
occasionally meet to trade finds (the items they
uncover tend to be more useful as a symbolic
treasure than practically useful) or discuss their
unique spiritualism. Like regular scrappers
some trade with one of the factions in Detroit
for protection, but their paranoia around their

76
discoveries mean they are more likely to remain
unaffiliated and rely of street smarts to stay away
from roaming monsters. Many keep an ear to
the grapevine and show up in the aftermath of
any major battle against Darkspawn to search
untapped buildings before the monsters return. If
an Excavator found a serviceable magical weapon
they may take it as a sign that they’re called to
join the war against the Darkness, if they’re smart
about it they’ll likely align with the Radiant as
an Excavators’ sense of purpose fits well with the
hope driving the Campaign. If they’re not smart
they may try to wage a one man war against the
Darkness, few magical items are powerful enough
for that to work and those relics are unlikely to be
lying in a Detroit basement.
Deconstruction (dice pool 5) — Whether a
professional construction worker or a scrapper,
Excavators know how to take a building apart.
Either for money, to get at a supernatural object,
or both at once.
Street Smarts (dice pool 5) — Excavators search
through abandoned buildings for occult objects, the
likely sites tend to be the more dangerous ones.
Knowing when to back away is a life saving skill.
Occult Investigations (dice pool 4) —
Excavators may not have any formal knowledge
or secret lore but they do have a knack for finding
an occasional occult object now and again. Finding
anything with actual power is very rare, but
that’s still an impressive track record. Some have
developed an ability to sense occult items through
their dedication.
Paranoia (dice pool 4) — Excavators need to keep
their wits about them in case the abandoned objects
they seek turn out to be owned by someone or
something after all. Once they have the prize they
often take excessive precautions to keep it safe.
Merits — Eye for the Strange (••). One dot
in any Supernatural Merit representing their most
potent object, or a one Dot Relic from WoD
Reliquary. Some have Unseen Sense (Supernatural
objects, ••).
Prairie Shaman
“Mother nature is coming back, we must embrace by the urban prairie. If the price is an occasional
her.”
As Detroit’s buildings give way to the urban prairie
citizens come looking to forage for food, to hide practical things. They want food or even natural
from cops, or just to get some fresh air and sunlight. medicine, and they try to avoid diving too deeply
Some of them find a sense of belonging that they into the occult least doing so might alienate them
could never find in the crumbling city and others from their community and the support network it
never realised what they were missing until they
77
found it.
Whether it’s because of a quirk of genetics or
because the Spirits chose them, the involuntary
nature of membership makes Prairie Shaman a
very diverse (if small) group with few common
goals. Some swing through the prairie on their
way home from a regular job and make offerings to
the spirits in exchange for finding some vegetables
to supplement tonight’s dinner. Some live on
the prairie as modern day wild men. Some even
commute down from the Suburbs weekly or even
from further afield. There’s a couple of students
from Ann Arbor who tell tales to classmates they
trust that are far grander than anything they can
accomplish.
Appearance
To identify a Prairie Shaman don’t look for ritual
items or Native American paraphernalia, look for
the person who seems ordinary but shows an
ability to navigate the wilderness that defies a
city upbringing. Shaman from Detroit tend to be
African American and usually wear ordinary street
clothing with a healthy dusting of soil on it, shaman
from further afield tend to be white and often look
dressed for the outdoors.
Many Prairie Shaman will have a discrete
amulet they made to provide some basic protection
from hostile Spirits, but only a few actually present
themselves to brag about their occult abilities. The
ones who do are usually kept at distance by other
Prairie Shaman, who worry they’re going to bite of
more than they can chew.
Storytelling Hints
Prairie Shaman are not the kind of shaman who can
bargain for the Spirits for rain to water the crops
or thunderbolts to smite the shaman’s enemies.
Though some would dearly like to be; that kind
of power requires substantial training and access to
lore that’s beyond the reach of most people in the
World of Darkness. What Prairie Shaman have is a
connection to spirits that helps them navigate the
urban wilderness. They have an instinct for what
will anger the Spirits and what will not, which helps
them make the most of the opportunities presented
demand or disturbing message from the Spirits then
so be it.
Prairie Shaman from Detroit are usually after
offers. Most can be found foraging or performing
small rituals to thank nature for it’s bounty while
Psychokinetic
they’re in the prairie, though they might track Pyrophillaic
down a Radiant to impart a demand or message
from the Spirits. Those from further afield usually “I control fire itself! I’m fucking Prometheus,
don’t need the resources the prairie provides but man!”
choose to come here, and that means they want to
get close to the spirits. They can often be found At this point neither science nor occult studies
studying occult books (the publicly available stuff) can say for sure what grants some people psychic
or performing favours from the Spirits in hope of powers, but clearly a... focused mind doesn’t hurt.
tuition. Detroit’s infamously large amount of arsonists
None of the factions has specific ties to the and pyrophiliacs means that despite the rarity
shaman, though Mashika did seek them out to see of developing psychic abilities there are several
if they could learn to adapt Legno Charms for their psychokenetics burning down buildings with their
own use (they couldn’t) and some might seek her mind alone. They tend to be considered weird
out if they need help or to pass on the location of and obsessed even by other pyrophiliacs. As a
Tainted Places in the Prairie they’ve discovered. consequence they’re most likely unemployed.
As it requires humans to form Taint once a part of
the Prairie is cleared out it tends to remain clear Appearance
and the shaman tend to congregate in known safe
places. Their skills are usually enough to keep them Usually young males, often unemployed. Some like
safe from any monsters roaming far from home. On to dye their hair red or orange. At the extreme
occasion Prairie Shaman have helped the Campaign they might wear gaudy fire themed outfits inspired
as medics but this is far from a regular occurrence, by comics or mythology to flaunt their assumed
a skilled and experienced Shaman could rival any superiority over other men.
modern doctor, but a self taught Prairie Shaman
either goes to that modern doctor or forages for Storytelling Hints
herbal medicine because they, or someone they
know, can’t afford a trip to the hospital. As a rule Most psychokenetics have no interest or connection
they don’t have much spare time or supplies. to the wider occult world, and given their rarity few
are aware that there are others of their kind. With
Wild-craft (dice pool 8) — Though most Prairie no employment they spend their time struggling
Shaman were raised in the city or suburbs, they find to survive or committing arson. Even if they
that their natural connection to the spirits gives looked for a way to make legitimate money from
them a supernatural edge when it comes to nature. their powers few could manage the routine and
Some are uniquely limited to Detroit’s urban prairie requirements of a real job, and would be employers
but others thrive in any wilderness. usually want to avoid anything supernatural. Some
Spiritual Wisdom (dice pool 4) — Spirits in psychokenetics work as scrappers, burning down
the World of Darkness are, as a rule, not wise. buildings without fuel expenses to get at the metals
They’re ambitious and hungry creatures, which is within. Others use their powers for petty crime
why a shaman who deals with them has to be wise. and hope the police will creatively loose paperwork
That wisdom can in turn be used to help their rather than confront anyone with supernatural
community. abilities.
Herbal Remedies (dice pool 5) — Prairie While fire is dangerous and can be a potent
Shaman are not the kind of occult healer who can weapon under human command it cannot match
conjure up miracle cures. They’re the friendly a good firearm for speed or ease of use. A
neighbour who’s good with herbs and won’t ruin pyrokinetic without combat experience can be a
your credit rating for life. deadly threat to an unsuspecting fireman, vagrant,
Occult Lore (dice pool 5) — It’s hard for an or ex-girlfriend, but they have little chance against
amateur oculist to separate the wheat from the a prepared Hunter, and virtually none against a
chaff, but Prairie Shaman do study to learn about Princess.
themselves and their abilities. They usually know
the basics, such as to be careful around Spirits. Pyrokinesis (dice pool 6) — Controlling fire is
Merits Holistic Awareness (•), Medium (•••) their identity and their obsession.
Mythology of Fire (dice pool 2) — Their research
is rarely more than a quick wikipedia search for a

78
cool quotation or two they might use.
Merits: Psychokinesis (••• or •••••)
Hunters of Detroit
In Detroit the war between the Light and the
Darkness is spilling out of the shadows and onto
the streets at night, and even the day. Those
who fight that war are a diverse lot, from Radiant
Princesses blazing with light to the angry and the
disaffected manipulated by C.O.R.D. into serving
the Darkness.
Radiant Champion
“If you love something, you protect it even if it kills
you. I’ve died before; it wasn’t so bad.”
Radiant Champions have come to Detroit from all
over America. Those born in Detroit often have
a hard edge from life in a broken city, but even
those born with a silver spoon in their mouths have
willingly walked into dark places and have the scars
to prove it. Most Radiant Champions follow the
Queen of Swords.
Appearance
Each Champion has a unique and distinctive
appearance. Most of them are young and
attractive, if sometimes in a very unconventional
way. Their outfits frequently ignore social
conventions and sometimes the laws of physics.
Storytelling Hints
They might be young, open-hearted, idealistic,
and have a tendency to run with their emotions,
but they’ve not naive or ineffectual. Radiant
Champions are by far the most powerful
combatants in Detroit. Most travel individually
or with mortals for support, and that is more than
enough firepower to deal with anything but the
most infested Tainted Place or a carefully planned
C.O.R.D. ambush.
While there are many Champions in Detroit the
Storyteller should avoid using them as disposable
NPCs. Even if they have no role in the larger plot,
each Champion should have a name and unique
appearance. This is especially true if the player’s
are playing mortal characters, a Champion’s arrival
(or her getting into trouble) should signal a turning
point in the scene. The Storyteller may consider
giving the Inspired Condition to everyone present
when she makes her dramatic entrance or Shaken
79
if she gets into trouble. Though remember that
hunter groups outside the Campaign usually have
an ideological or political reason to keep that
separation and may be less easily impressed.
Athletics (dice pool 13) — Detroit’s Princesses
skew towards the Court of Swords so flight is a
rare ability among Detroit’s nobility. It can be easy
to forget that when you watch them run and leap
across the city.
Empathy (dice pool 9) — Radiant magic is
powered by emotions, so Radiant Champions are
good at understanding both their own and other
people’s emotions.
Following their gut (dice pool 6) — Their
instincts are as magical as they are, but doing
the right thing isn’t always the same as doing the
sensible thing.
Inspirational Figure (dice pool 8) — Just being
in a room with a Princess of Swords can feel
amazing.
Levinbolt / Kensai (dice pool 15) — A
Champion’s skill in battle is outright superhuman.
Organizing Civilians (dice pool 8) — They’re
idealistic and want to protect people more than
they want to fight monsters. If necessary they can
take charge in a crisis.
Merits — Fame (•) though not publicly
acknowledged Champions are subjects of rumours
and urban legends, Inspiring (•••), five dots of
fighting Merits.
Radiant Squire
“Magic is real. The afterlife is real. I’ve seen proof,
so I know, you gotta do the right thing. It matters.”
Most of the mortals who fight with the Radiant
Campaign are Detroiters born and bred. Many
are veterans from Hunter organizations that fell to
C.O.R.D. and others were social workers, health
workers, or in a similar field where Princesses
tend to congregate and thus they learned of the
Campaign. It takes a significant investment of
magic to make a Sworn, and plenty of Detroit’s
Nobility are far from their friends and family so
they chose the best to become Squires.
Appearance
The Squires are a diverse lot, while nearly all are
Detroit born and bred the Radiant’s aggressive
recruitment means squires come from both the
relative stability and prosperity of the suburbs and
come inner cities bearing the signs of stress and
poor health. But no matter where they come from
what squires have in common is eyes that shine physical to show me the way.”
with the light of true belief. While the majority
of Squires are male there is a higher proportion of Not every person who volunteers at the Radiant
women among their ranks than any other hunter Campaign is bestowed with magical power. The
group save the Neighbourhood Watch. resources required for that are beyond Detroit’s
As the Campaign is located in Urban Detroit Nobility, or indeed the Nobility of any city.
the racial balance skews heavily towards African Those who do not have the raw potential or a
Americans, but Asians and Hispanics are more unique talent must serve Detroit through mundane
common than Detroit’s raw demographic numbers means. The men and women who serve as Men-
would suggest as those groups are under supported at-Arms come from similar backgrounds to the
by mortal hunter organisations. Whites are make Squires, having served in charitable institutions or
the second largest group after African Americans, other Hunter organizations before encountering the
their numbers are bolstered by recruits from the Radiant.
suburbs. For attire Squires favour practical store
bought equipment. They often adorn themselves Appearance
with homemade icons memorialising fallen monster
hunter compacts, symbolising ideals, or recreating Men-at-Arms look similar to Squires in most
icons from Princesses they respect; a more low key regards, and have the same demographics. Though
adaptation of the Nobility’s own heraldry. many favour larger coats as unlike magical Bequests
a gun is best kept concealed. Men-at-Arms are
often younger, fresher, or just all round more
Storytelling Hints
healthy than squires; as lacking magic their time
For many Squires, the Radiant Campaign is in less demand.
represents a second chance after watching their
former compact fall to C.O.R.D. or their voluntary Storytelling Hints
organisation gradually collapse under shrinking
budgets and increasing demand. And they have Being pure humans in a compact led by the
seized it with a grim determination that contrasts supernatural doesn’t bother Men-at-Arms. If
the idealism of most Radiant. When the need arises anything they lean to the opposite direction, but
Radiant Squires gladly work and fight alongside the the veterans try to temper anyone veering towards
Champions, but most of the time the Squires are blind faith. In battle Men-at-Arms tend to be less
leading mortals rather than trying to keep up with experienced and trained than hunters from other
Princesses. groups, an inevitable consequence of the Radiant’s
superior ability to recruit civilians, but they make
Levinbolt / Kensai (dice pool 10) — They were up for it with moral, team spirit, and magical
good fighters even before they got magical weapons. blessings.
Something useful from the old days (dice pool
4) — Whether they were a Hunter, a social worker, Rifle (dice pool 5) — Without magic Men-at-
or a famous figure on Detroit’s streets before the Arms must rely on conventional weapons, and as
Campaign, many Squires retain useful knowledge most fight in support roles to the magic users
or contacts from their past; and with few Graces in necessity hasn’t taught them the same skills as their
Detroit they often use what they have to serve as counterparts in other factions.
the Campaign’s interface with Detroit. Something useful from the old days (dice
Organizing Civilians (dice pool 4) — Like pool 3) — Like the Squires the Men-at-Arms were
the Princesses they serve mortals in the Radiant working for Detroit before they joined the Radiant
Campaign are expected to be able to manage and bring an eclectic but useful mix of skills with
civilians and keep them safe in a crisis. As cell them.
leaders that job falls onto the Squires. Organizing Civilians (dice pool 2) — Empathy
Merits: Crowd Management (••), Small Unit is endemic to the Nobility, and even though crisis
Tactics (••) management is usually handled by a higher rank
most Men-at-Arms have learned something by
watching and supporting their officer.
Radiant Man-at-Arms
“The magic isn’t important. What matters is
believing in something. Doctor King believed in
God, I guess I just needed someone a little more

80

Local 911 Union Rep
“We’re fifteen minutes out. Can you get to the
panic room?”
The hunters of Local 911 call themselves Union
Reps. They’re experienced combatants who hold
each other to a standard of professionalism despite
the unofficial nature of their compact.
Most “part time” Union Reps work in the
remaining automobile jobs. Those who don’t are
often “retirees”, called “full timers” that live off
their Union pensions and benefits. After the ’08
crash hit Detroit like a ten ton truck full of bricks,
the UAW and Big 3 negotiated early retirements
to cut labor costs and prevent a full collapse of the
industry. Now many of the Blue Collar workers
who took that deal are still not quite old enough to
retire, and many with service records from Vietnam
and Gulf War 1, have a choice between wiling
away their pre-retirement years working as a Wal-
Mart greeter, or picking up a rifle and fighting the
Darkness.
Appearance
Typically early middle aged and male, with
calloused hands from factory work. They wear
worker’s overalls with pride, often underneath
store-bought body armour. Like Detroit itself,
most Union Reps are African-American, but the
relative affluence of their recruiting pool means that
this disposition isn’t as strong as in other parts of
Detroit.
Storytelling Hints
“Union Reps” are the front line soldiers of Local
911. They’re well-armed and well-trained for
private citizens, and can be more professional than
Detroit’s cops. Reps prefer to fight outdoors where
they can take full advantage of their vehicles, but
will not hesitate to enter buildings if lives are at
stake.
Combat Driving (dice pool 2) — In an emergency
whoever is closest to the wheel is the driver, every
union rep has at least some training in driving
under combat conditions.
Heavy Blunt Objects (dice pool 3) — Like most
modern day humans Local 911 believe that guns
are better than swords, especially if your opponent
fights with claws and there’s a nice long stretch of
open ground between you. However in a pinch a
Union Rep knows how to bludgeon their opponent
with a gun or hand tool.
81
Manual Labor (dice pool 4) — Whether they’re
building a safe house, adding armour and firing
platforms to a stock van, or doing their day job
in the factory, Local 911’s hunters can build as well
as bust heads.
Rifle or Shotgun (dice pool 6) — Union Reps
are limited to civilian issue weaponry but they can
afford high quality if basic equipment. They favour
accurate and long ranged weapons, to better fight
from the safety of an armoured vehicle.
Merits: Fire and Motion (•)
Local 911 Driver
In every team of Union Reps one representative
will be the designated driver and gain the following
additional advantages:
Combat Driving (dice pool 7) — They’re the
designated driver because they’re very good at
what they do.
Pistol (dice pool 4) — Rifles and shotguns have
many advantages. Being practical weapons for
single handed use is not one of them.
Merits: Crack Driver (••), Stunt Driver (•••)
Local 911 Cell Leader
While not as strict as the military, Local 911 still
operates a chain of command. Each cell has a leader
who gains the following extra benefits. (The Leader
may also be the Designated Driver).
Combat Tactics (dice pool 4) — Local 911 are not
a military unit, but experience and self education
has taught them basic reliable tactics.
Communications Equipment (dice pool 2) —
The vehicle centric hunting style of Local 911
makes it possible to bring their own private
communication network.
Organizing Civilians (dice pool 3) — Local 911’s
mission is protecting the civilians in its charge, it’s
representatives know how to speak to panicking
civilians in an clear authoritative tone.
Merits: Marksmanship (•)
Automatic Heartland
Analyst
“The abandoned housing project just burned down;
let me plug that into the model. Hey, anyone know
if the fire was green or red?”
Some of them were recruited from technical courses
in respectable universities. Others came from
working class backgrounds and joined the military
to escape declining job prospects or uphold a family contingencies, and an exit route.
tradition. A few were even tempted or conscripted
from occult societies. Once they entered the force
someone with a few chevrons thought they’d do Automatic Heartland
more good behind a computer screen than behind
a gun.
Scout
“I’ve fought monsters in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria,
Appearance and this place is as bad as any of them.”

As military staff most of them are men. They’re
in good shape, if not as good as the people who
actually fight. While on duty they wear uniform,
and while off duty they dress more formally
than your average computer programmer but more
casually than, say, a banker.
The scouts are experienced veterans who’ve proved
themselves many times against human opponents
before being transferred into an altogether different
kind of war. Officially Automatic Heartland is a
surveillance operation, so most of the scouts served
in one recon unit or another.

Storytelling Hints Appearance

Heartland’s analysts are non-combatants and rarely The scouts are professional military and they look
go into Detroit themselves. Instead they stay it. They’re in peak physical condition, save perhaps
safe and sound feeding the latest reports from for some old combat wounds, and though the
the front line into computers. Characters from scouts absolutely don’t wear uniforms, years of
outside of Heartland are unlikely to encounter an military discipline has resulted in perfect posture
analyst unless they intentionally track one down, and clothing which, while brought from the same
but everyone who knows of Heartland knows they stores as Detroit’s citizens, is often just a little
will have a back office staff. After all anyone who too neat or too intentional in it’s dirt to blend in.
knows anything about the American military knows While Heartland recruits both African Americans
it will. and Caucasians they assign Scouts to the suburbs
or Detroit depending on their race to help them
Analytics (dice pool 6) — Officially Heartland’s blend in.
job is to make sure the brass and Washington stay When they fight in more populated areas,
well informed about the current state of Detroit. the scouts dress in biohazard suits and typically
The analysts take what the field teams report and tell people they’re decontaminating condemned
turn it into a big picture of Detroit’s situation and buildings full of toxic molds or asbestos. Most
specific key insights (like predicting the location of scouts have memorised enough Latin names and
new Taint). trivia to bore away bystanders. In reality the
Backdoors in Consumer Technology (dice pool suits just hide military grade body armour designed
4) — Is someone in City Hall possibly infected specifically to counter Darkspawn and their bulky
by the Darkness? Why not read his emails and decontamination equipment are just boxes full
see if his private persona is sadistic rather than of munitions. When on the urban prairies and
incompetent? Think a building is Tainted? Turn depopulated city blocks, they dress in full camo and
on any cell phone camera that walks by and maybe carry their gear in sturdy civilian backpacks, often
you’ll see something. resembling well armed urban explorers.
Government Databases (dice pool 6) — Off all
the Hunters in Detroit Automatic Heartland are
Storytelling Hints
the only one comprised almost entirely of outsiders.
But a lack of community links isn’t an issue when The scouts are frustrated. They know that
the feds have everyone’s everything on file. Detroit is getting worse and that they can’t
Need-to-know (dice pool 2) — Analysts are fairly do much about it. Knowing there’s a sensible
low down the totem pole, but sometimes they reason that the government doesn’t flood Detroit
needed to know, and sometimes they wrote that with reinforcements does little to take the sting
report before it was classified. away. Despite flagging morale they maintain strict
Pistols (dice pool 4) — They are military military discipline and professionalism.
personnel, but few have ever been in a real fight. Most of the time scouts will be doing
Tactical and Strategic Planning (dice pool 7) recconosence work, and while they take great
— Heartland rarely goes into battle without a plan, pains to stay out of the 5 o’clock news they’re

82
less concerned about being spotted by their fellow
monster hunters who, mortal or Radiant, are
unlikely to report to the press. When they go
on the offensive they favour precision strikes. Get
in, take out the target or plant the charges, then
get out.
Government ID (dice pool 4) — In the World
of Darkness, the Patriot Act stretches even further
than in the real world. The scouts need to maintain
plausible deniability, but if necessary they can
intimidate people and bypass red tape with a small
piece of plastic.
Need-To-Know (dice pool 1) — The scouts are
low ranked and only given top secret information
on a need-to-know basis.
Reconnaissance (dice pool 7) — Whether they’re
in the deserts of Iraq or the city of Detroit, the
scouts can move unseen and observe their enemies.
Rifle (dice pool 9) — As professional soldiers the
scouts are well trained in rifles, both assault rifles
and sniper rifles.
Tactical Weaponry (dice pool 4) — There’s a
balance to strike between plausible deniability and
using heavy weaponry in an urban environment,
even one such as Detroit, but when the balance
swings the right way Automatic Heartland has big
guns ready and waiting.
Trained Monster Hunter (dice pool 2) — Uncle
Sam might not be as versed in occult lore as older
players in the occult game but you cannot fight
monsters without learning a thing or two about
what hurts them.
Merits: Danger Sense (••), Firefight (••),
Marksman (••)
Lost Boy
“You on our turf, bitch!”
Nobody becomes a Lost Boy by choice. They join
because they were born or thrust into a life of
poverty with few other options, and while flipping
burgers might pay better McDonald’s won’t keep
your home safe from Darkspawn or criminals. This
background leaves the Lost Boys with little in
the way of formal education, but creates hardened
practical survivors.
Appearance
Usually young, male, African American, and
marked by a life of stress and poor diet. Lost
Boys wear designer clothing and gaudy jewelry,
much of it stolen. Older members are rare and
either joined the Lost Boys after a sudden fall from
83
grace or survived a long time on dangerous monster
infested streets. Watch how the others treat him, if
he’s getting respect he’s a canny survivor and very
dangerous.
Storytelling Hints
Being young and poor, even by Detroit’s standards,
means that the Lost Boys are ill-equipped and
lack the formal training offered by the other
Hunter groups in Detroit. To compensate they
use raw numbers and ingenuity. They rule
neighbourhoods where years of living side-by-side
with Taint and Darkspawn has blurred the line
between civilian and Hunter, allowing the Lost
Boys to call upon more Hunters than anyone else in
Detroit. Meanwhile familiarity and experience has
made them the best at exploiting a Darkspawn’s
animalistic nature.
Arson (dice pool 4) — There’s too much Taint in
the inner city to burn it all down, but when a place
gets too infested or Taint appears inside a defensive
perimeter, you do what you gotta do.
Ambush (dice pool 5) — Darkspawn are
predictable in their way, and the Lost Boys know
exactly how to exploit that.
Brawl (dice pool 4) — The Lost Boys learned from
the school of hard knocks.
Pistol (dice pool 3) — The Lost Boys lack training,
and rely on numbers instead.
Word on the Street (dice pool 7) — These
are the Lost Boys’ streets, little happens on them
without reaching their ears.
Merits: Street Fighting (•••), Turf (•••)
Neighbourhood
Watchman
“Looks like you’re on the wrong side of 8 Mile.”
Most of the Watch’s hunters come from a blue
collar background (if you take into account
unemployment then the suburbs are more blue
collar than Detroit itself) but the watch identify
themselves as suburban as much if not more than
they identify themselves as working class.
Appearance
The stereotypical Neighbourhood Watchman is
white, male, middle aged, with well made store
bought equipment and noticeably less battle scars
than Detroit’s other Hunters. Exceptions are
plentiful, as the Watch has a large complement of
women and (more controversially) teenagers. With
monsters prowling around some parents feel safer
knowing their kids can defend themselves.
Storytelling Hints
They’re affluent by Detroit standards. They’re
living in a safe suburb, and above all else they want
to keep it that way. While less experienced than
other hunters they’re no less dedicated. Watchmen,
not unreasonably, believe that the government’s
responsibility to deal with monsters threatening
citizens and aren’t shy about telling any Princess
who comes asking for volunteers to take it up
with Washington. However they’re pragmatic and
realistic, and will listen to any quid-pro-quo deal
that helps them keep their families safe until the
crisis blows over. Those Watchmen who have not
been convicted of a felony would be eligible to
receive a Concealed Carry license from the State
of Michigan- they may carry a pistol-sized firearm
at all times so long as they also carry the requisite
permit.
Shotgun (dice pool 6) — The Neighbourhood
Watch’s training focuses on indoors combat at close
quarters. Consequently they favour shotguns over
rifles.
Manual Labor (dice pool 4) — In Detroit even
the relatively affluent suburbs are fueled by factory
jobs. Most Watchmen have a blue collar trade, and
use what they know to fortify their homes.
Crisis Planning (dice pool 3) — While other
Hunters take the battle to the Darkness the
Neighbourhood Watch focus on keeping themselves
and their own safe. Most have plans and
preparations for when trouble arrives at their
doorstep.
Community Networks (dice pool 4) — The
social networks of the suburbs aren’t as all
encompassing as those of the inner cities, but it’s
there all the same and Watchmen are usually active
in their neighbourhood.
Merits: Safe Place (••), Close Quarters Combat
(•), Firefight (••)
Stormwracked
“My Queen’s testament is written on the walls,
it is spoken on every corner, it echoes in every
gunshot. How can you not hear it? Detroit and
all its monsters must burn before the city can be
reborn.”
Detroit has far less Stormwracked than it should.
Normally a city as Tainted as Detroit would
84
see exponential growth in Stormwracked as the
monster’s victims rise up to scour every trace of
their tormentors from the streets. The Court of
Storms might not save cities, but they ensure that
if humans can’t have it the Darkness can’t either.
C.O.R.D.’s leadership prevented that, culling
Stormwracked before they could organise, and now
it’s too late. There are so many Darkspawn and
Tainted Places that anyone who joins the armies
of Storms is likely to be found dead by the next
morning atop a pile of dead monsters. Larger
groups are almost unheard off, and when they
do form Detroit’s police, for all their flaws, are
remarkably proactive and brutal at dealing with
“domestic terrorists”.
Stormwracked activity often declines in late
October as Stormwracked prepare for Devil’s Night,
trying to recreate their greatest “victory” over
the Darkness when they burned hundreds of
homes- Tainted and innocent alike. C.O.R.D., the
Radiant, and other mortal factions have put a
stop to the most destructive elements: the Radiant
preventing innocent life and property coming to
harm, C.O.R.D. out of self preservation, and
mortals to prevent anarchy and chaos.
But so long as there is Darkness there will
always be Stormwracked.
Stormwracked can come from any background, pick
any of the mortal character templates above and
add the following advantages:
Combat Acumen — Add +3 dice to their
primary combat skill or add Pistol with a dice pool
of 3.
Visionary Dreams (dice pool 6) — The Queen
of Storms sends her followers information about
targets.
C.O.R.D. Agitator
“I agree! Judge a man by his actions. And what
are the white man’s actions? He lives in a country
founded on racism. He inherits the wealth his
ancestors stole from Africa, and tells himself it’s
ok because he took one day out of his life to march.
When you look at the white man, that anger isn’t
prejudice. That’s you recognising the truth!”
C.O.R.D. Agitators are Detroit born and bred, they
grew up surrounded by economic decline, failing
schools, gang violence, and Detroit’s history of
less-than-stellar treatment of African Americans.
This upbringing led to feelings of disaffection which
C.O.R.D. hijacked into serving the Darkness.
Appearance sloganeering, especially if they’re surrounded by
allies. With time a Radiant can convince an
While C.O.R.D. has pawns of all ethnicities
agitator to mend their ways, but under C.O.R.D.’s
only African Americans are officially welcome as
reign time is what the Radiant don’t have.
members. Since they are nominally a community
Most Agitators are free of Umbrae. Their
activism group agitators have no uniform and wear
actions don’t typically lead to Breaking Points and
typical street clothing within their budgets. Gang
with C.O.R.D. firmly in charge they have ample
colours and other signs of criminal involvement are
opportunities to safely indulge in their Vices and
prohibited as are visible Umbrae or anything that
clear guidelines for doing so. Those who end up
would imply they represent C.O.R.D. at a level
with Umbrae anyway are moved to different duties,
beyond being a dues paying member.
or just put somewhere where they can regress into a
Darkspawn without causing C.O.R.D. any trouble.
Storytelling Hints
Agitators are Darkened, not Mnemosyne, which Indoctrinated (dice pool 4) — C.O.R.D. is a Dark
means the Darkness hasn’t destroyed their Cult. It’s religious rites may be a secret from
humanity yet. They delight in, and are sometimes outsiders, but members like the agitators worship
addicted to, the rush they get from righteous anger the Darkness and can be as stubborn as any zealot.
(C.O.R.D. selects it’s agitators from Darkened with Proselytizing (dice pool 4) — C.O.R.D. agitators
appropriate Vices to keep them under control have no shortage of passion and dedication, and
and on message) but they still have morality what they lack in formal education about debate
and attachments to friends, family, and their they make up for with stooges, partisan crowds,
community. This is why they need a justification, and other tricks. They work to ensure fresh recruits
an explanation as to why spreading hatred will help attend C.O.R.D. meetings in Tainted Places or just
their community. C.O.R.D.’s political platform to keep Detroit angry and easy to manipulate by
provides that justification. C.O.R.D. controlled politicians.
Agitators have only been inducted into the Partisan History (dice pool 2) — Detroit’s failing
shallowest mysteries of C.O.R.D.’s worship. They public school system hasn’t given it’s citizens much
worship the Darkness and embrace their anger but knowledge of history, and C.O.R.D.’s supplemental
they believe that C.O.R.D. is trying to save Detroit, training is little more than lists of quotable facts
not destroy it. Spite and resentment channel Dark and sayings devoid of context and understanding.
power and that power gives C.O.R.D. influence on Merits: Allies - Detroit city government (•),
a municipal scale, enough to resist “the oppressors Mystery Cult Initiation (•or ••)
destroying our great city” but not enough to stop
them; unless the agitators do their work well. If C.O.R.D. Facilitator
enough people join C.O.R.D. in worship the balance
of power will flip and C.O.R.D. will save Detroit. “We are here to put together a plan of action to
Like most cults C.O.R.D. offers little hope of help City Hall protect marginalized residents from
advancement to it’s lower ranks. Most agitators Whitey gentrifying their homes and communities.
will remain agitators for the entirety of their But first we have some preliminary business, we
time with C.O.R.D. and never find out what have a new member with a dairy allergy and need
their organisation is really up to. Those who do to re-design the menu for tomorrow’s lunchtime
learn the truth are considered for advancement, meeting. We will open to the floor for suggestions.”
since their ability to penetrate C.O.R.D.’s secrecy
demonstrates potential. If they don’t make the cut Facilitators require lots of patience and competent
they vanish into the statistics of crime and random social skills, many were community activists or
Darkspawn attacks. In the past agitators were clergy before C.O.R.D. subverted them while others
aloud to leave if they were careful and didn’t make were recruited from the kids smart enough to wring
a lot of noise on the way out, but with the return an education out of Detroit’s failing schools but
of the Radiant C.O.R.D. has made operational unable or unwilling to flee the crumbling city. All
security a much higher priority. of them are angry, but it’s a more educated anger
Debating with a C.O.R.D. agitator is a delivered through oration rather than yelling and
frustrating experience for the Radiant. Most ranting.
Princesses will have the raw social acumen or life
experience (even if only past-life experience) to
talk circles around any agitator, which will make
the Darkened fanatic retreat into closed-minded

85
Appearance
Facilitators tend to be middle aged and dressed in a
more conservative style, men wear their hair short
and women strike for a balance between natural
African American hair and a more PR friendly
Caucasian look. The first impression they usually
give is one of being rather dull, which fits with the
fact they tend to spend much of their time in very
dull meetings. All this makes it more surprising
when some casual racism slips off their tongues.
Storytelling Hints
Running a city takes a lot of work, even when
your goal is to run it into the ground. C.O.R.D.
facilitators serve as something between middle
management and a civil service. A facilitator
will be given a topic, like public transportation
or education, and come up with a plan to drive
it further into the ground. Then they will
join a meeting and discuss their plan with other
facilitators, who each have their own competing
plan. One the surface it seems like the discussion
goes round in circles until the time runs out, but
as ideas circulate and are refined a senior member
of C.O.R.D. will secretly signal which conclusions
they agree with. The visiting officials from City
Hall and other guests know what their orders are.
A Radiant is more likely to meet a C.O.R.D.
facilitator when they are out for one of the
few occasions C.O.R.D. actually does something
resembling effective activism. In these situations
C.O.R.D.’s party line tends to embody the maxim
that “perfect is the enemy of good”. A facilitator
in public is usually arguing against some sensible
compromise, ensuring that resources will continue
to be overstretched and ineffective.
While deeply immersed in C.O.R.D.’s ideology
facilitators are Darkened and still have morals.
They typically believe, and need to believe,
that their work will help the black community;
though many will be happy “getting justice” by
wasting public money on something that hurts the
suburbs. In practice this means facilitators follow a
theological justification for their work: Destroying
the city of Detroit is destroying the legacy of
prejudice and oppression that holds the people of
Detroit back. Once they are free of the past the
community, using the Darkness’ supernatural gifts,
will at long last be able to build a better future.
While they are trying to destroy the city facilitators
often use their influence to help individual citizens,
this is considered a perk of the job and the funds
to do so are given as rewards for loyal and effective
service. After all doing favours for friends and
family with public money is textbook corruption
86
and The Darkness encourages all vices
The most dedicated facilitators have begun
to turn their efforts from targeting the city to
targeting their fellow inner city Detroiters; they
see “Uncle Toms” or “spies for the ‘burbs” hiding
in every corner who must be rooted out if Detroit
is ever to be free of “Whitey’s chains”. These
facilitators tend to be upwardly mobile, they are
initiated into the deepest mysteries of C.O.R.D.’s
worship of the Darkness and marked for transfer
to an influential institution or C.O.R.D’s upper
management, just as soon as they can get over that
last bit of loyalty to their community.
Boring meetings (dice pool 10) — They spend a
lot of time in meetings and are very very good at
making sure outsiders see them as ineffectual time-
wasters.
Evil Scheming (dice pool 4) — A facilitator’s
primary job is to develop new schemes to drive
Detroit further into the ground.
Indoctrinated (dice pool 6) — C.O.R.D.
facilitators have been initiated into deeper
mysteries of C.O.R.D.’s theology and are harder to
sway from their dark path.
Public Debate (dice pool 5) — On occasion a
facilitator will fill in as a talking head on the
evening news or be a guest invitee to a meeting
outside of C.O.R.D. there they will attempt to
argue down any good ideas; usually through the
perfect solution fallacy.
Merits: Allies - Detroit city government (•or
••), Mystery Cult Initiation (••• or ••••).
At four dots of Initiation Facilitators gain the Fixer
Merit.
Story Hooks
The Thin Red Bus Line
“The transmission is being held up with Hector’s
boyfriend’s leather belt, and Orunmila needs a
tetanus shot after she went digging in the scrapyard
for a new strut. But it’ll get Mrs. Sanders, Mr.
Malcolm, and Angie to their shifts on time for the
rest of the month. Totally. Worth it.” — Vickie
Fraser, Sworn of Diamonds, Third Shift Mechanic
Detroit has no mass transit aside from that
provided by the internal combustion engine. If you
can’t afford a car, then your only other option for
getting around is the aging bus system- and if that
bus system disappears, you can expect nothing less
than a short, impoverished life. The Detroit bus
system has 35 routes which are served by a fleet
300 aging vehicles. One out of eight Detroiters uses
the system daily to get to and from work, to the
suburban grocery stores that provide fresh food,
and to schools of choice in the suburbs. C.O.R.D.
has recognized that attacking the transit system
is an effective method to cripple the city. Every
month they’re ensuring more and more of the city’s
budget is being drained from this essential service
and funneled into useless “community upkeep”
projects that never seem to get anything done. And
the papers show their greatest victory over this vital
part of Detroit is on the horizon: By city ordinance,
once a bus has been flagged as inoperable, it must
be scrapped for “safety reasons” and the money
from the sale of materials is used to pay for other
“essential” services instead of being spent on a new
vehicle or spare parts.
It’s only a matter of time before the bus fleet is
reduced to so much scrap for pennies on the dollar.
Despite the best efforts of C.O.R.D. to strangle
this transit system, the fleet is kept afloat via
the unpaid overtime and community spirit of its
employees, many of whom are associated with the
Radiant Campaign, and who know just how much
Detroit needs them. The employees operate after
hours, sneaking through the barbed wire fences
surrounding the bus fleet service center to save
vehicles that might otherwise be destined for the
scrapyard, never to be replaced.
Engines, Engines Everywhere, and
Not a One to Use
Under normal circumstances, the Thin Red Line
would be at its wits end to keep the fleet running
and with C.O.R.D. things are even worse The
transportation ordinance is a shot across the bow.
A city inspector comes at 6 A.M. every morning
to certify the vehicles as service-worthy. The
company is so overloaded with work, racing to beat
this deadline, they have had to surrender a dozen
vehicles in the past week just to save a hundred
more. It’s a war of attrition they’re losing and
they’re considering desperate measures. Measures
that might be outside the competence of bus drivers
and benefit from the assistance of Nobles who want
to keep Detroit’s people safe and employed.
• There’s an obvious solution: Use magic to fix
the busses. Of course a bus is rather large and
the fleet has three hundred of them. That
takes a lot of magic, and few of Detroit’s
Champions know Charms for scouring rust
or reversing metal fatigue. But just across
the river in Windsor is a university full of
Menders. They might not be up for fighting
87
monsters but if enough of them could be
convinced to take a trip and kept safe they
could have the fleet back to factory condition
with no time. Hopefully by the time they
start wearing out again C.O.R.D. will be
gone and their replacement will have sensible
policies and a reasonable budget.
• The Black Market of Detroit is a source of
constant conflict between city and suburb.
The city’s thieves sell stolen cars to chop
shops to make a quick buck, and those parts
are then used by suburbanites to keep their
vehicles running. A bold Nakama might
decide to enact a little Sword and Spade
justice on this vicious cycle. According to one
of the Lost Boys friendly with the Radiant
on the DL, there’s an almost industrial-
sized operation running from a scrapyard
warehouse on the city’s east side, chopping
up everything from Jeeps to unattended tow
trucks. A few months back the Lost Boys
were muscled out, and the new operators are
suspiciously well equipped. If the Radiant
could shut down this operation and seize the
contraband parts, the Red Line would have
enough material to continue operating for
months.
• The city ordinance ordering the inoperable
buses be sold off is a waste to both the city
and the riders. The Radiant know how hard
it is to get city hall to reverse a bad decision-
after all C.O.R.D. makes them deliberately.
But even with with the Emergency Financial
Manager no longer in power, there might
be a chance. Because the EFM was from
out of town, they were more concerned with
balancing the books than maintaining quality
services. The Radiant have few contacts in
Lansing, but a small open and shut case
to pull resources from foundering initiatives
could be the first step and buy the bus
lines some vital breathing room. Of course,
C.O.R.D. has no doubt dispatched agents
to the state capital as well, especially after
the EFM did such grievous damage to their
infrastructure with only a calculator and a
mandate from the Governor.
• The Queens of Diamonds and Clubs suggests
a more scientific, long-term approach. These
buses keep the city moving, yes, but even
these desperate measures are only delaying
the inevitable. Detroit is the Motor City,
after all, and electric vehicles are the hot new
thing. If the Nobles can get to any of the Big
 Three, they might be able to convince the
bigwigs to provide newer, more sturdy and
eco-friendly vehicles to keep the city moving.
The Darkness is a friend to greed, however,
and even a single advanced vehicle would cost
thousands of dollars. Even more challenging,
the Big Three are publicly traded companies-
there is more than one person who would
need to sign off on any philanthropic plan, no
matter how small it may be. If a whole fleet
were donated and the company took a million
dollar hit it could ill afford, the PR effect of
replacing 300 buses would be minimal outside
Detroit. This path has the highest reward
for the steepest challenge- for the enemy here
can’t be blasted away with a magic wand,
only vanquished with passionate argument
and careful appeals.
The Fire Brigade
“Fire is a natural part of nature’s cycle of rebirth.
When too much junk and trash and debris builds
up on the forest floor, everything in the ecosystem
starts to choke and die. It dries up and turns to
kindling. Then a single lightning strike sends the
whole thing up in a blaze. Animals die. People too.
But eventually it’ll regrow free from all that trash.”
— Princess Brigit of Storms
Detroiters remember October 30th, 1984, as the
worst Mischief Night ever recorded in the city. Over
800 fires burned unchecked throughout the city
with the fire department unable to keep up with
how quickly they were set. Humans called the mass
arson and chaos Devil’s Night.
Detroit’s Nobles remember this as the night the
Queen of Storms sent her lieutenants to the city of
Detroit. It was the night Princess Brigit defected
to the Court of Storms.
While the Goalenu did not stay to destroy
the entire city, Brigit and her Sworn saw the
destruction as a perverse sign of hope. Brigit had
been fighting with her firefighter Sworn since the
first Blossomings after the Release. Never in the
history of Detroit had so much damage been done
to the forces of Darkness than on that one night.
She knew in her heart the war would not- could
not- be won in a block-by-block fight. Taking time
to sort out Tainted homes from un-Tainted homes
would only speed up the victory of the Darkness. It
all had to come down, whether “innocent” people
lived in that home or not.
If these people were truly innocent, they would
have left Detroit a long time ago.
The Brigade prepares for battle each week from
88
one of the city’s dozens of shuttered fire stations,
mounting up in their heavily modified truck, its
water tanks filled with gasoline. They torch houses,
businesses, parks and warehouses that have begun
to manifest Taint and then kill anything that comes
out screaming, swinging bloody fireman’s axes into
the necks of those survivors wreathed in flames.
Rinse and repeat until the Darkness is gone, or the
Fire Brigade is wiped out. Arsonists, pyromaniacs,
and Stormwracked all flock to the Fire Brigade’s
arms to indulge in their own destructive urges.
Brigit’s experience and relative mental stability
have allowed them to survive in Detroit where the
Darkness is in control and organised on a city wide
scale.
While the Brigade is always active, they are at
their most powerful on the night of October 30th.
Every year, they try to match the blaze ignited by
the Queen of Storms’ Goalenu, hoping their carnage
will tempt the Queen herself to manifest and finish
what was started. The night is notorious among the
Supernatural denizens as the night the city most
resembles a war zone- a fire on every block and
sirens ringing throughout the air. The Radiant
work until the dawn hours to keep the innocent
from harm while the city’s Hunters, police, and
Darkened all engage in a battle royale against the
Stormwracked. Mortal arsonists and pyromaniacs
acting independently of any organisation or plan
only add to the chaos.
Fighting Fire
The Fire Brigade are a small fish in a big
pond. With Detroit firmly under C.O.R.D.’s thumb
Stormwracked rarely last long, often no longer than
a single night, and don’t get the chance to form
up into larger groups. Only the Brigade hold
out because of their Princess, not only is Brigit a
peerless monster in battle she’s one of the few Furies
who are in control of, rather than controlled by,
their rage. She keeps her brigade in check, making
sure they never bite off more than they can chew,
and fire can chew on a lot.
In raw numbers the Fire Brigade are a small
fish, but they’re not to be overlooked. Two
Champions and a dozen Men-At-Arms have been
hospitalized or worse by fights with the Brigade and
countless innocents have been left homeless or dead
from their attacks. A Champion would be advised
not to confront Brigit alone, especially not if she’s
with her brigade. Unfortunately opportunities to
gather allies are few, Brigit is also a master at
hiding between battles, and when she does appear
she enters combat alongside a band of heavily
armored Stormwracked, swinging fire axes and
spraying flames from crude flamethrowers.
• The Queen of Spades hints that there is a very
particular tool that humans use when fighting
fires: a Fire Rake. Its purpose is to rip up
the earth ahead of the blaze, preventing it
from spreading elsewhere. Why expend time
and effort tracking down Brigit when she will
reappear? Her terror continues because she
can escape the scene of her attacks. The
Queen of Thieves advises that you instead
wait for Brigit’s next attack- and work to
prevent this escape. Close the roads, patrol
the roofs, prepare a network of defenses, and
corner her where she may blaze brightly,
extinguishing herself against your bulwarks.
• Brigit is good at hiding but The Queen of
Diamonds has every confidence that her court
can be smarter than this troublemaker. The
danger of the Fire Brigade comes from their
deadly weapons and preparedness, but no
matter how good Brigit is at concealing her
whereabouts, you can’t build flamethrowers
without leaving some kind of trail. Find the
Stormwracked buying (or stealing) enough
gasoline to move that enormous truck they
ride into battle. Follow them back to the lair.
And descend on it before the Stormwracked
know what hit them!
• The Queen of Swords and the Queen of Hearts
are in agreement on this. The scourge of
Devil’s Night is bigger than one Princess
and her band of followers. Brigit’s tarnished
Nobility attracts attention, but the hundreds
of mortals starting mundane fires and ruining
lives are the bigger issue. Deal with the
mortals first and the Brigade’s lonely fire will
be easy to spot and unable to hide.
Ruth’s Friends
Listen to me- listen to me! I’m like you. My name
is Mikaela, but it used to be Andrew. And I’m
here to tell you it’s gonna be okay. What they did,
tossing you out- it was wrong. It was wicked, and
evil, and just plain wrong, and I understand you’re
hurting. You deserve to be happy. But if you stay
here, you’re going to have worse than muggers and
cops to worry about. Let’s get you someplace warm
and talk about where you can get help with HRT.
— Mikaela, Beacon
Detroit has one of the largest populations of
homeless LGBT youth in America. While
small Michigan cities like Ferndale and Ann
89
Arbor are welcoming places, a combination of
a macho working man’s tradition mixed with
traditional Catholic and Baptist faiths have created
a borderline toxic culture when it comes to being
an Out and proud individual in Detroit. Many
young people who out themselves are tossed
unceremoniously into the night, never to be seen or
heard from again, already dead in the eyes of their
parents. In the suburbs the abuse of young people
is less overt but no less damaging. Trans kids
are denied access to hormone replacement therapy
because their parents are too concerned with what
the neighbors will think. Lesbian daughters are
written off as “going through a phase” and gay sons
are pushed to the brink of suicide by bullying and
“no son of mine” lectures.
Most homeless shelters in Detroit are run by
churches and associated charities, so a warm bed
and a good night’s sleep aren’t offered to queer
youth if you can’t pass as straight- a practice
that is illegal but tacitly supported thanks to
fanatical members of the Michigan legislature.
Gang violence in Detroit targets these young people
in a disproportionate way. Drug abuse creates
death spirals. Human trafficking in Detroit is
a disgustingly lucrative business- people can be
pushed into prostitution or even be killed and have
their organs sold on the black market. Either
way, they’ll be dead or Darkened long before
“the authorities” lift a finger to help. C.O.R.D.’s
leadership are of course happy to see Detroit
treating its own so cruelly, but until the Radiant
arrived in force they were also the biggest source
of LGBT charities and support organisations; and
they were always willing to give a tormented youth
access to the Dark power they needed to strike back.
Enter Ruth’s Friends: Mikaela, Danni, and
Destiny.
This trio of Beacons have been defending the
Ruth Ellis Shelter in Detroit- the oldest homeless
shelter in the city that explicitly opens its doors for
Queer youth, and a respectable Blessed Place in its
own right. They make it their mission to safeguard
the queer population from the destructive whims
of the city, to do what they can to bring them to
safety, keep them from succumbing to the Darkness
or taking their own lives. It’s an endless battle, but
not a thankless one. The shelter’s Blessings make it
a magnet for reincarnated Nobles seeking safety or
a place they can do some good. There have already
been several Blossomings from the volunteers and
residents. One of them is a Onceborn. And the
Darkness can’t abide by that.
A Rainbow Coalition
C.O.R.D. assumed that they could wait for
Detroit’s citizens to destroy the Ruth Ellis Shelter
for them. That plan backfired. Fighting off
inordinate lawsuits only grew the Shelter’s profile
and introduced its defenders to allies across the
country. The social media outcry ensured that
Radiant, both within and Beyond Detroit, knew
of the shelter and when the Campaign arrived they
were sure to reach out. Today Ruth Ellis is firmly
affiliated with the campaign. But C.O.R.D are
nothing if not cunning, there are other ways to
conquer a fortress- and a siege is one of them.
C.O.R.D. has succeeded in purchasing the
Center’s surrounding real estate and have begun
taking the Ellis Center to court over property
disputes. They’re painting the shelter as a den of
sin and crime rather than a safe haven. The Ruth
Ellis center has called in several non-profit lawyers
to defend them and are likely to prevail, but it’s
still a drain on resources and a source of stress on
the mortal workforce. When the shelter’s residents
move on (as they inevitably must, to give time and
space to new arrivals) C.O.R.D.’s agents offer them
a bed at the newly built White Home for Troubled
Youth, set up inside a newly renovated (and secure)
boarding school on the city’s West Side.
Of course, the word has already reached Ruth’s
Friends about the living conditions inside the
building. Poor food. Isolation cells. Electroshock
therapy. Brainwashing classrooms. Worse: All the
guards reek of the Darkness. But the building is set
up like a fortress with fences, watch dogs and guard
stations. Several of the Home’s residents have been
corrupted and now spread all manner of lies and
slander about the Ruth Ellis shelter to a city all
too eager to believe them.
Ruth’s Friends are at their limit helping keep
the Ellis Center open and saving everyone they
can from a life on the streets. A dozen vulnerable
youth have been taken into the White Home and
not heard from since, and that sort of evil cannot
be allowed to stand.
• The Brightly Burning One, the Queen of
Swords, doesn’t need to say anything. Her
Heroes know exactly what she would say. Cry
havoc and smash through the walls. Don’t
leave its prisoners suffering another moment!
Barbed wire and chain-link fences will not
stop a Champion. What’s more, the White
Home doesn’t appear in any public records.
It’s literally off the grid, and that isolation
makes it vulnerable to a direct supernatural
attack. The Lady of Clear Water, Queen of
Diamonds, urges caution. C.O.R.D. know
90
how Princesses think, a reckless assault is
exactly what they’d be expecting. Perhaps
a carefully planned assault would be better.
• C.O.R.D. targets LGBT youth because they
are vulnerable, and they are vulnerable
because of Detroit’s culture. No culture
changes overnight, but the Queen of Clubs
suggests this could be a starting point. Ruth’s
friends have inside knowledge, while Detroit’s
Hunters have skills and equipment. If the
Radiant could bring them together rather
than solve this themselves it would present an
interesting opportunity. In a city as Tainted
as Detroit Hunters have status and influence.
The seeds sown by fighting side by side to save
the most vulnerable could take root and one
day blossom into lasting change.
• The Queens of Hearts and Spades agree
more often than one might suspect. If
even one Champion dies rescuing the kids,
C.O.R.D. got good value for its resources
and has every incentive to repeat the plan.
To succeed the Radiant need to remove
C.O.R.D.’s ability to create such shelters,
by taking down this one not with fists or
magic, but with truth. Go undercover, get
inside the White Home and expose it to
the world. C.O.R.D.’s money comes from
Detroit’s municipal government. Enough
social pressure could draw the attention of
State bureaucrats in Lansing, prompting a
new EFM to come in and investigate a misuse
of funds. This plan requires more time
to work but it will ensure that not only
are the youths freed and prevent C.O.R.D.
from repeating this scheme; exposing how
C.O.R.D. moves it’s money could also hamper
their projects all over Detroit.
The League of
Extraordinary
Gentrifiers
“I understand that you’ve lived here for thirty
years, but your home is in violation of no less
than seven Visual Standards Codes approved by the
neighbourhood council last week. You have seven
days to get this addressed or your property will be
seized and repurposed into a new free-range-organic
juicery.” — Alan Camden, Mortal
To say that the city of Detroit needs help to restore
itself is no understatement. The Radiant Campaign
makes no bones about this fact and is proud to
admit it’s members come from all over America. If
Detroit could have restored itself with no outside
help the hardy residents would have done so long
ago. To that end, Mashika welcomes the new
hipster enclaves that are springing up in the city
limits as sources of stability and hope, even while
longtime residents look on with suspicion and even
hatred.
But, Mashika is quick to say, there are two types
of gentrifiers in this world.
The first understands that they are inheriting
a legacy when they buy land and put down their
roots, and that there is more to a neighbourhood
than property values and clean appearances. They
work with local governments to protect their
neighbors from rising rent costs, ensure that there is
no police favouritism toward the well-to-do, and use
their wealth and privilege to lift their neighbours
out of poverty. Like a new tree springing from
a forest’s floor, they exist in harmony with their
surroundings, taking up space but not displacing
any other trees around them.
The second kind of gentrifier does none of these
things.
Playing the Market
The Radiant Campaign is hearing about a new
initiative springing up in the urban prairies of the
city, buying up properties - not in empty blocks
as “expanding city services to new areas would put
an unreasonable burden on the taxpayer”, but in
almost empty blocks - establishing Neighbourhood
Councils, and evicting long-time neighbours who
can’t completely renovate their ancient homes to
meet the new neighbourhood “look”. In comes the
bulldozer, down comes the house, and up goes a
generic hipster cereal cafe or vinyl record store, or
worse, a trendy future home that sends property
values up by double-digit percentage points. Never
mind that no one ever seems to live in these
expensive eye sores.
The organization calls themselves “The League
of Extraordinary Gentrifiers.” A new property
development initiative straight out of the most
perverse think tanks of Silicon Valley. Their
website is slick, their ad campaigns top tier, their
appearances are all man-buns and cutting-edge
Bohemian fashion trends. They’ve been established
with secret backing from C.O.R.D. as a new urban
renewal initiative for the 21st Century and are
being hailed as a success from unlikely corners.
Unlike many of C.O.R.D.’s other operations
in the city that radiate Darkness and could lead
to cooperation between the Radiant and other
91
factions, almost every faction of monster hunters
sees no problem with these projects. Local 911
factory workers are happy to see their fellow blue
collar workers in construction are being employed
to put the structures up, the NWA sees these
enclaves as a renaissance of Detroit, and Automatic
Heartland hasn’t noticed anything supernatural
about the neighbourhoods so they don’t care one
way or another. Only the Lost Boys resist these
projects as it’s often their families getting evicted,
so the League has made healthy contributions to
the Detroit Police Department to ensure there’s
ample security in the areas they buy up. Any
attempt at driving whitey out of the neighbourhood
by the Lost Boys will be met with nothing less than
SWAT level force.
Mashika has taken great pains help more well-
meaning gentrifiers and long-time residents learn
to co-exist, but this is a new threat. C.O.R.D.
has found a way to isolate the Campaign and
rob Detroit of some of its most loyal citizens.
However while C.O.R.D. has funnelled money into
the League, both to hurt long term residents and
to bring fresh victims into Detroit, they have
limited oversight or control leaving the Radiant the
opportunity to strike back.
• The Queen of Diamonds balances her own
national budget and designed the skyscraper
she lives in. She would advise any Noble to
take care to inspect these buildings and how
structurally sound they actually are. This
is a political attack made through catspaws
and shell companies, not the foundation
of a lasting real estate venture. There’s
bound to be some corners cut or questionable
loopholes exploited to get these buildings
put up this fast. If the entire operation
could be exposed as a sham, the property
prices would plummet back to their original
values and could potentially save lives of
anyone who actually does move into the new
buildings. The Queen of Hearts agrees that
this venture is vulnerable. If the backroom
deals making this all possible were exposed
and the League forced to go through the
proper channels, then C.O.R.D.’s dirty money
could be captured. Either the project would
have to be redesigned to work for everyone or
it would be abandoned entirely.
• The Queen of Clubs thinks the best way to
overcome the crisis is to turn the weapons of
the Darkness against itself. Local 911 and
the NWA see these building projects as the
restoration of Detroit. Perhaps they could be.
C.O.R.D. wants to bring in rootless hipsters
 with no loyalty to Detroit while evicting long
time residents. But how well does it know
West Coast college students? With a little
peek at the League’s internal operations and
a flight West to coach prospective residents
C.O.R.D. could end up inadvertently paying
to bring civic minded taxpayers into Detroit;
tax-payers who’ll eagerly protest against
evicting residents. Bringing old residents and
new immigrants into a harmonious whole is
exactly what the Court of Clubs is about.
Sanctuary
“If you are receiving this message, your
organization has harbored two individuals wanted
for desertion by the United States Army. A bunch
of little girls like yourselves may not understand
the gravity of the situation, but let me lay it out for
you in terms you can understand. If they are not
returned to the United States Tank Command in
Warren, Michigan by midnight tomorrow, your
little ‘Campaign’ will learn the real difference
between what it means to play at war and what
it means to go to war.” — Anonymous cellphone
message
One morning two individuals approached the
campaign. Alice Harrison and Tim Nguyen came
forward with no weapons, little money, but a lot
of training. They identified themselves as members
of the United States Military, a secret government
project that was operating within the city of
Detroit, and explained in suitably vague terms that,
the organization’s mission statement was one of
passive observation and not active intervention, but
Alice and Tim were done with passive observation.
They wanted to help this city, and they believed
the Radiant were the key to the city’s future.
Both brought almost a decade’s worth of
combat and logistical experience in some of the
most difficult failed states in the world along with
the ability to pass that information on to the
budding Radiant.
At first, Mashika and Zari saw no downside to
accepting help from these two, assuming it was
unofficial, under the table help. For their part,
Tim and Alice gave no indication to the truth
of the matter- they had deserted from Operation:
Automatic Heartland, so inspired (or blinded) by
the brilliance and hope of the Nobles that they
officially cut ties to devote themselves fully to the
campaign.
The two went off the grid, securing a vacant
home as a safe house and working as security guards
for derelict Auto Plants for cash. At night, they
92
follow the Radiant into battle as Sworn, responsible
for saving countless lives and capable of destroying
Tainted nests on their own. Zari trusts them
implicitly, considering them as skilled as any of
the Squires within the city, and most of the city’s
Nobles know that advice or a tip from those two is
worth it’s weight in gold.
Which made it all the more damning to the
Campaign when the truth came out…
Gods Have Their Own Laws
Within the last 24 hours Zari and Mashika received
a communication from an unknown number on
their personal cell phones regarding Alice and Tim.
The message was simple: surrender these two
back to Automatic Heartland to face charges for
desertion, or Heartland will come and take them-
and mow down any Noble that stands in their way.
A Noble is a powerful person, but they’re not
indestructible, Zari doesn’t want to spend the rest
of her campaign watching over her shoulder for an
anti-material rifle.
The most troubling thing, though, is that
Alice and Timothy have not responded to any
communication attempts after these calls were
placed. When Mashika hurried to their home, she
found it ransacked and reeking of the Darkness.
The two were somehow ambushed and likely taken
captive. They need to be found before midnight or
the entire Campaign could be in danger.
• The Queen of Hearts believes in the rule
of law. Under normal military law, she
understands imprisonment might be the fate
of these two. But she points out that this
is a black ops unit deployed on American
soil and its members are unlikely to get a
fair trial. These two Sworn would face an
uncertain punishment- most likely death. An
unjust punishment for a crime is no justice.
Remind Automatic Heartland that they are
a force for good in this city, and that the
spirit of the constitution takes priority over
whatever paperwork justifies their existence.
• The Queen of Spades says her girls should be
able to outplay any stuffy soldiers at cloaks
and daggers. Advise the contacts within
Automatic Heartland that you no longer can
find these two renegade soldiers, and that
the Radiant were never made aware of their
status as deserters. In fact, you should
pleasantly offer to help track them down
with Automatic Heartland. But wouldn’t you
know it, every time you catch up to them,
you hear Darkspawn attacking children, or
 some hunters are in a tight corner. And border from Fraser pushes more and more families
hey, it looks like the deserters are headed to to enlist. But still, nobody wants to fight a war
Windsor! Heartland expects the Radiant to on two fronts. Once again C.O.R.D. is directing
be emotional and unreliable, that can be used swarms of Darkspawn to try and breach 11-mile,
to convince them you’re incompetent allies this year they’re targeting Warren and coordinating
and not helping the Sworn escape. the assault with packs of Darkspawn moving in
from Fraser.
• The Queens of Swords would never support This two pronged assault not only puts the
turning Alice and Tim over to Heartland. Watch in a strategically vulnerable position, but
They might have been dishonest but once you also in a politically vulnerable position. The whole
start thinking of people with a cold pragmatic purpose of the Watch is to keep one’s family safe,
eye you’ve set foot on a very slippery slope. but if you patrol the freeway some Darkspawn
However if the Sworn were willing to sacrifice might sneak through the porous border with Fraser
themselves for the good of Detroit that’s and attack your kids, and if nobody patrols the
different, that would be a noble act worth freeway the much larger horde of Darkspawn
honouring. It has to be a free choice of course. gathered from Detroit could descend upon the
And they don’t have to turn themselves in. suburbs. It’s a textbook prisoner’s dilemma with
Going down in a blaze of glory and taking the highest stakes imaginable.
down a large Taint could show Heartland that
their secrets are safe again while reminding • The simplest solution is simply to send
Uncle Sam how expensive a war with magical reinforcements to the I-696 freeway. A
girls could be. Champion or man-at-arms could take
advantage of the terrain as easily as any
watchman and Darkspawn aren’t disciplined
A Man's Home is his Castle fighters at the best of times; the presence
of a Princess would distract the Darkspawn
“if you in #WoodwardHeights get off the street!
causing them to focus on her rather than
Trouble going north! #Detroit” — @Devra
try to rush past the defensive line and into
the vulnerable suburb. It will only take a
Since Detroit’s fall to C.O.R.D. the I-696 freeway
few victories until C.O.R.D. stops throwing
has served as a moat between the northern suburbs
away it’s forces. One complication is that
and the Darkspawn to the south. The interstate is
the suburban police have zero tolerance for
dug into the ground with long exposed slopes on
anyone who looks like they might bring
every side; and as every military tactician knows
trouble from Detroit into the suburbs. If
you want the high ground. And that’s if you pick
the Radiant coordinate with the Watch this
the spots without large concrete walls and avoid
shouldn’t be an issue, nor will out of town
getting hit at eighty miles per hour.
Princesses with white skin and respectable
For years C.O.R.D. has tried to breach the
accents (or the magic to fake it) in civilian
moat through both political tactics and outright
garb have to worry about anything, but
assaults, and to the Neighbourhood Watch Alliance
if Princesses or their supporters rush in
the biggest injury was often to the ammunition
without laying the groundwork they could
budget. Supporters catch the noise a swarm of
find themselves held up by confrontations
Darkspawn makes on social media, or Watchmen
with the police or face a Driving While Black
who work in law enforcement would hear the news
arrest.
from down south on the airwaves. The call would
go out, and the Watch would gather to turn 11-mile • The Radiant aren’t the only ones well placed
road into a death-trap. to offer their support. With C.O.R.D.
gathering Darkspawn from urban Detroit
The Moat is Down for the big push Local 911 should have an
easy few nights. And since C.O.R.D. times
Big banks in New York and London did what their attacks for when the road is closed
C.O.R.D. couldn’t achieve alone. The financial for construction (Darkspawn have a habit of
crisis lead to the opioid crisis, and suburbs like getting hit by cars or running away from the
Fraser have become tainted ruins to rival anything fight to chase them) the long empty highway
south of the I-696 freeway. The neighbouring city of is the perfect hunting ground for Local 911’s
Warren has become the Watch’s biggest stronghold jury-rigged war machines. If C.O.R.D. tries
as the danger from Darkspawn wandering over the to cross a bridge instead an armoured van

93
 makes a great barricade. It will take a
lot more than a few nights to bridge the
mutual distrust between Local 911 and the
Watch, but negotiating a favour for a favour
could be a great start. If Local 911 won’t
step in U.S. Army Tank Command is only
a mile away from the freeway. Automatic
Heartland’s analysts are confident they can
let the Watch deal with this, and deploying
the manpower and equipment needed to
guard a freeway could cause enough political
fallout to end someone’s career. But they
could be persuaded to be more generous with
the equipment they supply the Watch under
the table, and perhaps even to turn a blind
eye to some of their agents turning up in
Watchman’s clothing while they’re off duty.
• The thing about this plan is that charging
across the 11-mile road has never been a
particularly good plan. C.O.R.D.’s leadership
are patient and cunning, they strike the
suburbs when opportunities like the opioid
crisis present themselves. C.O.R.D.s rank
and file are angry, they were promised that
the Darkness would give them power and they
want results. So every year or two when
the hotheads grow too loud or a ranking
officer lets her hatred of the suburbs get the
better of her C.O.R.D. gathers up a horde of
Darkspawn tells the ringleaders to take them
north and storm the I-696. Their failure and
the death of the loudest voices demanding
immediate action makes a good object lesson
on why you should stick to C.O.R.D.’s master
plan. All this means that even if the Radiant
do nothing the Watch will likely emerge
bruised but still in control of Warren, they
could arrange sleepovers for civilians to free
up personnel or call in help from Watchmen
further afield. Meanwhile a lot of Tainted
Places south of the I-696 freeway will be
vulnerable as the monsters who usually nest
there travel north to die trying to breach
the suburbs. Striking the neighbourhoods of
Northern Detroit will force C.O.R.D. to pull
back and cancel further assaults while scoring
victories for the Radiant and their allies.

The white people in meeting audiences would throng around me, asking me, after I had addressed them
somewhere, “What can a sincere white person do?”
When I say that here now, it makes me think about that little co-ed I told you about, the one who flew
from her New England college down to New York and came up to me in the Nation of Islam’s restaurant
in Harlem, and I told her that there was “nothing” she could do. I regret that I told her that.
Malcolm X - A.K.A. Detroit Red - “The Autobiography of Malcolm X”

94