[Icelander]

Originally Posted by Icelander

Tomasz Wojciechowski was a child prodigy (of almost everything, but perhaps most notably chess) who dropped out of med school just before graduation due to student unrest in his native Poland. He has since spent most of his life as an unconventional, but exceptionally effective, special operator.

Zamal Juman was part of a paramilitary police death squad in a very ugly undeclared war in Guyana and has spent the past twelve years in an intelligence billet in Kessler's 'Night Riders'. He may not have the phenomenal fitness of the younger operators, but ever since he was young, he's lived in a greyscale world of danger, counter-surveillance, murder and betrayal.

Whoever is picked to supplement them will be, at minimum, a Navy SEAL or other similar special operator who is unusual even among his peers in terms of willpower and mental toughness.

When you consider that the 'Driving Miss Piggy' team has a mandate to call in a strike team (federal LEOs or 'Night Riders' depending on situation) to ambush their pursuers if they detect cultists, I'm not sure that anyone who finds them will have much of a chance to rue the fact that their target is more porcine than prophetic.


If there is even one Kermit among Kessler's part-time 'Night Riders', I'm sure Wojciechowski will ask for him by name. I'm not sure, however, that it is particularly likely. I guess someone could be named after President Roosevelt's son.



The funny/tragic thing about it is that this job is assigned to NPCs. The PCs have better things to do than piggysit the ringer.

This scenario is part of my ongoing occult mystery / paranormal technothriller / Monster Hunter campaign, Caribbean by Night. In fact, I've just posted in the campaign thread asking for input on where the three NPCs should drive Miss Piggy.

I'd love suggestions from as many people as possible.

Lucien Lacoste's player asked me if I could write a short story about the adventures of the 'Driving Miss Piggy' team...

Originally Posted by ChaosCoyote

For what it’s worth, I second this request.

Now, I'm not saying that I will, because while I'm a lot healthier than I was, I still have too high blood pressure to be allowed ADD medication*, but I'm not ruling anything out, either. I have little experience with proper creative writing, as opposed to GM-prep, but assuming I can maintain a pace similar to my paid work as a lawyer, I might be able to turn out a short story in a day or two.**

Assuming that I try, the Navy SEAL character is the closest thing to an audience surrogate. This is somewhat at odds for the in-setting requirement that he be someone exceptional (if only for reasons of mental fortitude) even within the highly trained ranks of special operators, but someone might happen to be highly capable at the art of killing people and breaking things while still being mostly a normal person.

The character would have had a supernatural experience during his military service, probably in Afghanistan or Pakistan, and while his superiors did not believe his account and he subsequently retired from the military, someone from Kessler's organization (likely one of the former Navy SEALs) heard about his situation, arranged a meet and eventually recruited him for the 'Night Riders' (after he passed a series of non-obvious tests of character, willpower and trustworthiness, with judgment aided by supernatural means).

I was thinking that he might not have been assigned to an operational team of the 'Night Riders' yet because he wanted to go to college, which Kessler would unreservedly encourage and pay him for being available part-time during his education. Which would be why he was not already doing something important, but was available to respond to an 'all hands' notice sent out a couple of days before this from the Penemue.

Of course, whoever recruited him would have suggested areas of study, universities where they could help him arrange compatible schedules and expertise particularly valuable in understanding the occult, but pretty much any education would be highly regarded. In-setting, dealing with the supernatural is a job for people with the equivalent of multiple advanced degrees in obscure or recondite subjects, whether those are from universities or the school of hard knocks.

Demographically, I'm thinking someone who joined the Navy with some college under their belt already (because I already have too many who joined right out of high school), but either did not finish their degree or found out after finishing it that it wasn't what they wanted to do with their lives. They don't have to be Texan or even Southern, but that is the way to bet with Kessler's people.***

The first thing that came to mind for the most likely kind of character to be available and not already assigned to other duties was someone who attends university and/or has family within a fairly easy traveling distance from Galveston. Not necessarily same day travel, although that would be good, but at least fairly reasonable driving distance or a cheap flight.

That would meant they were spending the holidays somewhere within a distance that made it reasonable that they'd either respond to an optional request for anyone able to work the 27th of December 2018 until past the New Year's or they'd be in a position to respond really quickly once the 'all hands on deck' call stopped being optional, in the early hours of the 30th of December 2018.

While it's not a complete deal-breaker, I think someone based in Houston or anywhere within an hour of Galveston would already have been assigned a job doing something else. So I'm looking for a happy medium of distance, i.e. someone close enough to be there when this job is handed out, but not so close as to have been there the night before and already have another task. Someone at University of Texas - Austin would be typical, for example. Other options include Texas A&M, Sam Houston State, Lamar University, SMU, LSU or similar locations within a 2-5 hour drive.

Of course, our hero being a quick flight away is far from impossible, if it would yield a more relatable and equally plausible character. That would open up a wide range of Southern universities, and even, gasp, some Yankee institutions! I'd really prefer a location in the South****, however, but I'd accept residence in a college town that was very diverse and had students from all over.

Also, what would forumites consider relatable motivations for vigilante monster hunting in a secret occult conspiracy? In terms of motivational lenses, GURPS Disadvantages or just mundane articulation of why someone would do this, what would people consider the most normal kind of recruit?

As for a name, I'm assuming that 'Chris' and 'Bobby' are both orders of magnitude more common in East Texas than 'Kit', but is 'Kit' actively foreign or strange-sounding as a nickname for someone named Christopher Robert as first and middle names in modern Texas?

Can I get any suggestions on what kind of hero, background or other details people would want in such a short story?

Short introductory blurb of the Driving Miss Piggy chronicle is up.

*Without which I can't really commit to focusing on anything beyond whatever random period of time my momentary enthusiasms might last.
**Or a couple of years, in case my enthusiasms will only support a few minutes at a time. I'm not promising anything, as the only things I'm able to force myself to deliver are legal briefs and trial speeches in cases where someone else's future is literally at stake.
***They are more likely to be entirely foreign, e.g. African or South American, than they are to be 'Damnyankees'.
****Prejudice aside, it's easier to be able to report to work part-time in locations such as the Houston area; New Orleans vicinity; Jackson, MS; Mobile, AL; Florida somewhere; or any of dozens of Caribbean locations; if you live in a more southerly location. Each hour of travel further north someone lives or studies adds an hour to their commute when they do report for some 'Night Rider' escapade to supplement one of the existing teams.