Summer’s Cauldron is an ongoing Changeling: the Dreaming 20th Anniversary campaign that revolves around a group of young fey in the town of Creekwater
Characters
Player Characters
Viceroy Suzanna Green
A friendly and energetic Pooka Wildling that works as a twitch streamer
- Break the Cutie: Poor Suzanna has been through a lot these past few years
- Bunnies for Cuteness
- Character Death: She is killed at the end of sophomore year after being shot by Trent’s poisoned arrow, and finished off by Heathcliff’s blood magic.
- Character Development: By the end of the campaign, Suzanna has grown much stronger, and doesn’t allow herself to be taken advantage of by others anymore
- Evil Uncle: Her uncle ends up being John Osborne, the local serial killer
- Extreme Doormat: Starts off this way. By the end of the campaign, she has outgrown those habits
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: Subverted. The deaths of Stephen and especially Eredin still effect her
- Innocent Fanservice Girl: Part of the reason her twitch channel is so successful
- Katanas Are Just Better: Her weapon of choice
- Not Quite Dead: sophomore year’s stinger shows that Granny and Lenworth have regrown her body which is currently in a fetal state
- Undying Loyalty: To pretty much all her friends
- Unusual Ears: She has rabbit ears
Viceroy Mori Nelson
The friendly neighborhood drug dealer with a heart of gold
- Aggressive Drug Dealer: Completely inverted
- Anti-Hero: Drug dealers are not exactly common heroes
- Arch-Enemy: Bloome. They have been playing a cat-and-mouse game with him since the very beginning of the campaign.
- Create Your Own Villain: They accidentally got Glenn hooked on drugs, leading to him becoming a violent, narcotic-addicted thug
- Fauns and Satyrs
- Good Is Not Soft: Despite being a relatively good person, Mori is one of the most ruthless characters in the campaign especially when it comes to combat
- Green Thumb
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Rodrigo
- Magic Mushroom: Some of the mushrooms they grow
- Token Good Teammate: They are one of the only decent people working for Bloome
- Took a Level in Badass: They start the campaign having to suck up to people like Bloome to scrape by, and by the end, they have become a force surpassing them completely
Viceroy Arlo Karlman
A shy and naive armadillo pooka
- Ambiguous Situation: He may or may not have leprosy
- So Proud of You: No matter what he does, his parents interpret it as a major accomplishment that they are proud of him for
- Shy Shelled Animal
Viceroy Chloe Davis
A quiet Sidhe who is haunted by a great tragedy
- Dark and Troubled Past
- Twice Shy: Her and Dorina
Viceroy Adler Waters
A Ghille-Dhu that runs a shop with his parents
- Plant Person
- Talking the Monster to Death: He is able to convince Demographic to end his rampage and accept his fate
- When Trees Attack: His limbs often turn into branches in combat
Sunset Court
Other Viceroys
Viceroy Penny Connors
An unhinged, energetic punk rock guitarist
- Abusive Parents: She doesn’t realize it, but her father is absolutely terrible to her
- Amnesiac Hero: She is missing some memories as a result of her time Bloome’s chair. It is later relieved that this includes learning of Bloome’s involvement in the famine
- Big Eater
- Brainless Beauty: “This is just like Hamilton but in real life!”
- Breakout Character: In-universe. Her music becomes very popular, and fans latch on to her quirky and upbeat personality
- Cloud Cuckoo Lander
- Expy: Heavily inspired by Dulcie from Going Bovine
- Genki Girl
- The Heart
- Hollywood Homely: Several antagonists (especially Bloome, to an obsessive degree), comment on Penny being unattractive, despite her being primarily described as “average looking” and “kinda pretty”
- Instrument of Murder: Her guitar
- Love Interest: For Mori
- Nightmare Sequence: Suffered one that lasted a month while captured by Bloome
- Perky Goth
- The Pollyanna: Despite being raised in a junkyard by an abusive alcoholic, spent a month being tortured by human traffickers, and all sorts of other misfortunes befalling her, she remains upbeat and and positive no matter what
- Talkative Loon
- Trademark Favorite Food: Don Queso Pizzeria and Grill. She is absolutely devastated when she finds out that they are actually a front for the United Court
Viceroy Porcelina Joi-Marjory Coldwater III
The former baroness of the Winter Court
- Abusive Parents: She was a controlling parent that treated her teenage daughter like an infant. This eventually drove her to stabbing her and running away during the Winter Court’s fall
- Ambiguously Evil: She has no problem using Bloome’s harvesting chairs on the Sunset Court’s enemies
- The Beautiful Elite
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: She has doesn’t understand why everyone’s so mad at her for suggesting that they Mind Rape their enemies the same way Salvatore Bloome
- The Friend No One Likes: No one is exactly thrilled to have her as a Viceroy, and she wasn’t a very liked ruler before.
- Pimped-Out Dress: She always has a ridiculously elaborate dress on
- Screw You, Elves!
- Took a Level in Kindness: She has mellowed out quite a bit by the time Junior year rolls around
- Upper-Class Twit
Viceroy Gertrude Pinnick
The elderly matriarch of the Hoskins family
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: She is preparing to turn into a true fae and ascend to Arcadia, something that most fey rarely accomplish
- Apron Matron
- Big Good: The closest thing to one
- Cool Old Lady
- Creepy Good
- Create Your Own Villain: Granny’s vengeful torture of Heathcliff/Pleasance let to him becoming so deranged and powerful. Also, her experiments would later be used by Salvatore Bloome to start his glamour harvesting ring
- Flying Broomstick: To go with her classic witch aesthetic. She also keeps several spares
- Crutch Character
- I Was Quite a Looker: She claims so in her glory days
- Mentor Archetype
- Ms. Exposition
- Never Mess with Granny: Despite her frail appearance, she is an incredibly powerful spellcaster
- Noodle Incident: Whatever happened between her and Heathcliff
- Not So Stoic: Not that she’s very stoic to begin with, but she keeps her emotions in check. Right up until Suzanna’s return, where she breaks down crying and apologizing for not being able to protect her from Heathcliff
- Older Than They Look: She still looks very old, but better than your average 237 year old
- Signature Laugh: Her iconic cackle
- Supernatural Gold Eyes
- Eccentric Mentor: Granny is definitely a bit odd, but a genuinely wise and helpful figure
- Witch Classic
Bodyguards and Security
Kenneth Largo
A heroic and upbeat warrior of the court
- Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Downplayed
- Boisterous Bruiser
- The Cape: He acts like a superhero most of the time
- Cool Sword: He stole it from Disneyland
- Hunter of Monsters: He is often called in to dispatch rogue nightmare chimera
- Large Ham
- Lovable Jock
- Love Interest: For Adler
- Miles Gloriosus: Subverted. While his claims of heroism seem exaggerated and over the top, they are actually true. He also isn’t trying to brag, he just wants people to feel safe in his presence
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: In order to rescue Suzanna, he sneaks into the afterlife, and beats up one of the reapers in order to steal their cloak
- Uncertain Doom: He is thrown into the void by the Fox, leaving his fate unclear
Polliver Trench
The captain of the Summer Court’s guard
- Character Development: He starts to slightly warm up to Suzanna after she saves his life for the second time
- Deadpan Snarker
- Disney Death: He is supposedly killed at the beginning of the siege by the clay soldiers, but shows up a few sessions later, alive
- The Dragon: To Kestrel
- The Friend Nobody Likes
- Good Scars, Evil Scars
- Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Although Suzanna will never accept it
- Not So Stoic: He finally breaks down during Suzanna’s return to life, after repressing his emotions since her death
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: He suffers from PTSD as a result of his experience [[during the siege]]
Josie
A combat expert
- Afro Asskicker
- Cute Bruiser
- Disney Death: She gets a fake-out death nearly every session
- Fangirl: She’s very excited to be part of a revolution
- Genki Girl
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Josie is incredibly powerful and can win fights in seconds, but not if anyone other than her opponent is watching
- Weaksauce Weakness: She gets too anxious to fight if others are watching
Citizens
Frank Hoskins
A confused but supportive Kinain man
- Canine Companion: Jasper the bulldog
- Chekovs Gunman: He ends up playing a major role in the final battle
- The Dog Bites Back: It is mentioned that he finally tells Calroy off after he insults the now deceased Suzanna
- Family Man
- Papa Wolf
- Politically Incorrect Hero: Downplayed. He clearly has very dated views of gender roles, but is very tolerant otherwise
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Attempts to go on one against Heathcliff following his mutilation of Dorina. it eventually works out in the end
- Technologically Blind Elders: It took him 2 years to figure out how to select seasons on Netflix. Until then, he assumed there was only one season of the show he watched so he just played it on repeat
- "Well Done, Son" Guy: He desperately wants to please his father, to the point where he overlooks his horrible treatment of him and the rest of his family
Rowan Hoskins
Franks’s carefree and flirtatious son
- Beware the Nice Ones He’s usually a chill and patient guy, but he has his limits. When Vandal keeps making gross remarks about Suzanna, he loses his cool and almost blasts his head off with a fireball
- Book Dumb
- Break the Cutie: By junior year, Rowan is a shell of his former self.
- Cannot Spit It Out: He lost his chance to it in the past, so he makes sure he never loses it again
- Chivalrous Pervert
- Dark and Troubled Past: He had to watch as several of his friends including his crush slowly slipped away due to the famine
- Despair Event Horizon: Suzanna’s death. This drives him to leave the Sunset Court for the Ironblood briefly
- Erudite Stoner
- Eye Scream: He loses an eye to Bloome’s cold iron dagger
- Fauns and Satyrs
- Intergenerational Friendship: With Principal Icehead, which comes in handy due to him constantly getting in trouble
- Love Interest: For Suzanna
- Nice Guy
- New-Age Retro Hippie
- Playing with Fire: He usually uses fire when in combat
- The Slacker: At least when it comes to schoolwork, which he does next to none of
- Stepford Smiler
- Trauma Conga Line: In junior year, He is still grieving Suzanna’s death, both of her killers got away unpunished, and his relationship with Art is hollow and unfulfilling
- Understanding Boyfriend
Dorina Hoskins
Franks’s shy daughter
- Broken Bird: She has not been in a good place since she lost her wings
- Cute Witch
- Dream-Crushing Handicap: She can no longer fly after her wings were damaged by Heathcliff’s blade, and had to be amputated
- Love Interest: For Chloe
- Most Fanfic Writers Are Girls: She is a prominent fanfiction author
- Shrinking Violet
- Trauma Button: Heathcliff’s presence. Heathcliff seems aware of this, and sets her off whenever possible
- Winged Humanoid: She has swan wings, which she loved to use
Ralph Pinnick
Granny’s son that specializes in spying and deception
- '90s Anti-Hero
- Big Bad Friend: Ralph ends up being an Ironblood leader that plans to steal the Winter’s Cauldron
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Ralph acts friendly and fatherly to the rest of the Sunset Court, but in reality, he is a cruel, spiteful bastard that’s okay with hundreds of innocents dying to take down the United Court
- Cool Uncle
- Dirty Coward: He gives up on trying to save Rowan and flees because he is intimidated by Heathcliff
- Freudian Excuse: He had to live in fear of Heathcliff and the Shadow Court for his entire childhood, and was the one to discover his father’s flayed corpse. He eventually grew to resent Granny and her inaction, and joined the Ironblood
- Hidden Disdain Reveal: He actually despises Granny forcing them to live with Heathcliff’s torment
- Invisibility: His main magic ability
- Large Ham: Members of his kith are known for being quiet and shy. Ralph on the other hand, is loud and extroverted
- Karma Houdini: Sort of. He escapes and gets away guilt that he couldn’t protect his family from Heathcliff despite his hatred of his mother for the same thing
- Knows a Guy Who Knows a Guy: Ralph has lots of connections. He has informants in the United Court, and was able to arrange negotiations with the Ironblood
- Lovable Rogue
- Master of Disguise
- The Mole: For the Sunset Court in the United Court. Also for the Ironblood
- The Spymaster
- Villainous Breakdown: After Suzanna and Mori stop him from detonating the Winter’s Cauldron
Kestrel
A powerful and charismatic lord. He is the son of the Summer Court’s founder
- A Lighter Shade of Gray
- Base-Breaking Character: Not all the players agree on if Kestrel’s actions are justified or not
- Big Good: Subverted. He plays this role during freshmen year, but after the fall of the Summer Court, he is left a broken man, and Granny takes this role
- Byronic Hero
- Eye Scream: Bloome plucks one of his eyes while interrogating him
- Heel–Face Revolving Door: He becomes an enemy to the Sunset Court for a while during the timeskip, but eventually comes back
- Heroic Sacrifice: Subverted. Kestrel knows the time will come for him to lay down his life for the court. When the time actually comes following his capture and torture by Bloome, he cannot bring himself to do it and instead sells them out.
- Little Bit Beastly
- The Load: From sophomore year on, he serves little use, but still causes problems for the Court
- My Country, Right or Wrong: Kestrel is willing to do nearly anything for the good of the Summer Court
- Playing Possum: He fakes being killed by Heathcliff in order to get the jump on him
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Most of the time
- "Well Done, Son" Guy
- Would Hurt a Child: He had no problem killing Castlehead’s redcaps, and almost killed Nancy after mistaking her for one of them
Florence Lowry
Amber’s aunt, and a former lord of the Summer Court
- Cool Aunt
- Face–Heel Turn: When they find her the United Court, she reveals that she was manipulating them all along and is evil. Later subverted when it turns out it’s just an act to stay under the radar until she can escape with Camila
- Killed Offscreen: She is struck down by Castlehead while protecting Colin before Suzanna reaches her
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: While the players are trapped by Ralph she leads the civilians of the Sunset Court to escape from the advancing Ironblood forces
- Shipper on Deck
- Team Mom
- Undignified Death: Subverted. Boggs claims her death was this because she screamed as she died, to which Suzanna of course calls bullshit
Camila Rodrigo
A Summer Court lord with a short temper
- Amazonian Beauty
- Butch Lesbian
- Hot-Blooded
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: She gives a pretty vicious one to Kestrel upon arriving at the Sunset Court
- No Indoor Voice: SHE IS ALWAYS YELLING
- Power Tattoos: She has them all over her body that help her cast spells
- Playing with Fire
- The Slacker: Her trial is simply to take over her lord duties so she can go visit her girlfriend
Amber Reese
The niece of one of the lords who owns a bakery in the Summer Court
- Big Beautiful Woman: She is on the chubbier side, but very attractive
- Brainwashing for the Greater Good: A mild example. She uses mind control to place positive feelings and memories in her pastries
- Fake Memories
- Love Interest: For Arlo
- My God, What Have I Done?: She is horrified after killing Money Mike
- Nice Girl
- Through His Stomach
- Willfully Weak: She is capable of complete Mind Control, but is terrified of her own power and insists on only using it for her sweets
Warren Yang
A Summer Court-aligned sorcerer that teaches at the local high school
- Badass Teacher: He doesn’t hesitate to stand up to the many corrupt authorities in the school, and is a sorcerer that’s able to go toe-to-toe with Heathcliff
- Cool Teacher
- Happily Married: He gets married at the beginning of sophomore year
- Righteous Rabbit: Smokey, his familiar
- Straight Gay
Darius Aat
A former Winter Court member that stays in Marie’s nightclub
- The Quiet One
- Rock Monster: Downplayed. About a third of his body is made of rocks
- Walking Shirtless Scene
Artemis “Art” Akamatsu
A former Ironblood commander who joined the Sunset Court
- Amicable Exes: With Rowan
- Dying Moment of Awesome: Before being shot down, she saves Suzanna’s life, and kills three Thallain soldiers
- Emotionless Girl
- Foil: Art’s personality is mostly the complete opposite of Suzanna’s. This part of the reason that Rowan is drawn to her
- Innocently Insensitive: She keeps accidentally bringing up Rowan’s dead ex-girlfriend
- Mighty Whitey and Mellow Yellow: Completely inverted
- No Social Skills
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: After fighting off Castlehead and his men she is abruptly shot in the head by Boggs
- Replacement Goldfish: Rowan’s new girlfriend following Suzanna’s death
- Walking Spoiler: It’s hard to talk about her without bringing up Suzanna’s death
- You Killed My Father: Her entire family was killed by Castlehead as retribution for their role in his exile
Neo (Spoilers)
A mysterious boy found by Mori and Suzanna with no memory
- Amnesiac Hero
- The Baby of the Bunch: Due to his innocent personality and naivety, he quickly becomes a surrogate son to Mori and Suzanna. As it’s later revealed, this was his main purpose
- Fish out of Water: He tries his best to fit in the human world despite knowing almost nothing about it
- I Am Not Him: He desperately doesn’t want to become the Beast when he learns of his true nature. It doesn’t work out
- Living MacGuffin: He is revealed to be a leaving cocoon for the Beast that was created for the party to care for while he healed
- Manchurian Agent
- Mystical White Hair
- Nice Guy
- Peaceful in Death: Birchmire uses magic to calm him down and make him feel happy again before the Beast emerges and erases his mind
- Walking Spoiler
Jamie C.
Local bully, captain of the football team
- Ax-Crazy: A side effect of his Fury use, often causes him to randomly kill his henchmen
- Career-Ending Injury: He is paralyzed from the waste down after being pushed of Bliss by Adler
- Character Development: He finally starts to grow during his relationship with Nancy
- Evil Is Hammy
- Humiliation Conga: After his injury, he is kicked off the football team and the Shadow Court Council, has his girlfriend stolen by Ricky, and is immediately forgotten about by the entire school
- Jerk Jock
- Token Evil Teammate: When he joins the Sunset Court
United Court/Shadow Court/Don Queso Pizzeria and Grill
Rulers
The Beast (Spoilers)
The ruthless leader of the Shadow Court. Eventually revealed to be John Osborne, who is staying alive on the fear that the town still has of him
- Abusive Parents: His mother was physically and emotionally abusive towards him, and his father just didn’t pay attention to him
- Affectionate Nickname: His parents refer to him as “Johnny Boy”
- Achilles' Heel: His fear of his mother
- Bad Boss: He is infamous for his cruel treatment of his underlings
- Batman Gambit: He manages to trick the party into serving as his bodyguards by creating Neo, an artificial being with a kind and innocent heart that they quickly grew attached to. The entire time, his damaged essence was dormant inside Neo, until it healed, emerged, and killed him
- Big Bad: Of Freshman Year
- Big Brother Is Watching: The Beast uses black roses that contain eyes and ears watch over the entire town
- Complete Monster
- The Corrupter: To all of Creekwater
- Dark Lord on Life Support: During the second half of Freshman year
- Even Evil Has Standards: Despite being misogynistic, psychotic, necrophiliac murderer, he is disgusting when his own niece aggressively makes out with him
- Eldritch Location: His final form is a hotel made of flesh
- Flaw Exploitation: His fear of his mother is found out early on and constantly exploited by the players during the road trip arc
- Freudian Excuse: He blames his mother’s treatment of him for his actions, but it’s implied that this is simply his nature.
- Grand Theft Me: He tries to steal Suzanna, Mori, and Adler’s bodies after his second death
- I Love the Dead: Just like the real serial killer he’s based on, John has a…fondness for his victim’s corpses
- Immortality Immorality: The Beast’s final plan would make the entire fey population immortal which would be great if it didn’t involve agonizingly transforming an entire town into sentient blobs of amorphous misery
- Karmic Death: He is finally torn apart by the tortured souls of Creekwater that he tried to manipulate into accepting an existence of predictable misery, destroying him for good
- Kick the Dog: He is fond of doing this just to remind his victim who’s in charge.
- Leit Motif: If It Rains by Paul Mcneil
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Twice. First, when he is executed in prison, and then again when he allows himself to be killed during the battle with Bliss
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Osborne is based off the real-life serial killer, Edmund Kemper, also known as the Co-ed Killer
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Most of the United Court believe he wishes to bring immortality to all fey. In reality, he simply wants control
- Personal Raincloud: Heavy rain begins every time the Beast is near
- Psychopathic Manchild: His true nature, which shows once he’s been pushed too far
- Sadist: All of his plans are way more sinister and cruel than they have to be
- Serial Killer
- Skull for a Head
- Ungrateful Bastard: Birchmire spends all of sophomore year continuing John’s plans in his absence, and even making more progress than he did. When John returns, scolds and mocks Birchmire for not being forceful enough, and is clearly threatened by his competence
- Xanatos Gambit: It turns out he was pulling one the whole time
Vincenzo Romano
The Emperor of the Northern Summer Court
- Anti-Villain: Vincenzo genuinely cares for his people and wants to protect them, but he lacks the bravery to be a good leader and his cowardly actions usually cause more harm than good
- Apologetic Attacker: He sends the party an apology letter for trying to murder them
- Boom, Headshot!: How Polly finishes him off
- Bring My Brown Pants: According to rumors, he shit himself as he fled from a battle
- Dirty Coward
- Face Death with Dignity: When the Sunset Court prepares to execute him, he spends his last moments watching the sunset in peace. It is then subverted as he takes off running and screaming before being shot down by Polly
- Foil: To Kestrel
- Miles Gloriosus
- Puppet King
- The Quisling: Despite all the suffering they have inflicted on him and his court, he still ends up allying with the Shadow Court out of fear
- The Scrappy: Despite his Anti-Villain qualities, he is one of the most despised characters in the campaign due to his constant cowardice and half-hearted attempts to reconcile with his victims to clear his own conscience
- Would Hurt a Child
High Council
Harvey Birchmire
One of the Beast’s right hands and top strategist.
- Affably Evil: He is mostly respectful to his enemies, and even willing to help them for a price
- Big Bad: For Sophomore Year
- Beware the Nice Ones: Despite being one of the friendlier members of the Shadow Court, he is directly responsible for the seige that destroyed the Summer and Winter Courts
- Disney Death: He is revealed to be alive at the end and working as the Dean of Millhouse University
- The Dog Bites Back: Once he escapes from Dradin, he brutally kills him and defects to the Sunset Court
- Co-Dragons: With Heathcliff
- Dragon Ascendant
- Ensemble Dark Horse
- Evil Sorcerer
- Family-Values Villain
- Heel–Face Turn: He finally snaps when Castlehead attacks Nancy, and leaves the United Court for good following his “punishment” by the Thallain
- High-Class Glass: He has a monocle that covers his empty eye socket
- Hyper-Competent Sidekick: Birchmire successfully conquered the Winter and Summer Courts, has turned the Shadow Court into a powerhouse with a monopoly on resources and territory, and arguably turned Creekwater into a better place overall. Despite not being as powerful as the Beast, he’s much smarter and much more successful.
- Off with His Head!: How Heathcliff kills him
- Pragmatic Villainy
- Shameful Strip: After he is enslaved by Dradin, he’s paraded around wearing nothing but a pink thong
- The Worm That Walks: His body is filled with locusts that are also fragments of his brain
Heathcliff
The enigmatic, bloodthirsty right hand of the Beast
- Ax-Crazy
- Bad People Abuse Animals: It is noted that he often murders neighborhood pets just to watch their owner’s grief
- Being Tortured Makes You Evil: Downplayed. He was always evil to begin with, but Granny keeping him in excruciating pain for an entire decade was what caused his mind to break completely, making him much much worse.
- Blood Knight
- Bloody Murder
- Co-Dragons: With Birchmire
- Combat Sadomasochist
- Complete Monster
- Dead Person Impersonation: His true name is actually William Henry Pleasance. The real Heathcliff was Gertrude’s lover that Pleasance killed out of jealousy, and started going by his name as a result of his obsession with her
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Most of the United Court are disgusted with Heathcliff and horrified by his actions, but hey, at least he gets the job done. The only people who actually like him are Prudence, who thinks he’s some kind of misunderstood brooding emo boy, and The Beast, who admires his complete lack of fear
- The Heavy: He is the most consistent and dangerous threat to the players throughout the campaign
- Hero Killer: He kills Stephen at the beginning of the story, and has a reputation in general for killing powerful warriors. He is also the one to kill Suzanna, making him the only villain to kill a PC in the campaign
- Karma Houdini: He always gets away with his atrocities due to the United Court’s connections. To everyone’s frustration, he gets away with killing a player at the end of sophomore year with no consequences other then some wounds that barely phase him
- Karma Houdini Warranty: It takes all 42 sessions, but he is finally killed, courtesy of Jasper
- Kick the Dog: Constantly, but most notably when he torments Dorina at the Birchmire’s Christmas party
- Nightmare Fetishist
- No Hands Barred Beatdown: Gets one from Frank and the Hoskins twins following his defeat
- Older Than They Look: He still looks to be in his mid 20s, when in reality he is at least a century old
- Sadist
- Sins of the Father: He extends his grudge with Granny to her family
- Undignified Death: He gets one of the most humiliating deaths in the campaign. He is stabbed in the neck by a bulldog with a cold iron dagger in it’s mouth
- Villainous Crush: On Granny
Salvatore Bloome
A sociopathic crime boss
- Asshole Victim: Bloome is one of the most unlikable characters in the entire campaign. When he is eventually assassinated by the Sunset Court, no one sheds a tear
- Back from the Dead: The Beast resurrects him along with Demographic
- Catchphrase: “SCRUB HARDER BITCH”/“I NEED SOME PURIFICATION OVER HERE”
- The Friend Nobody Likes: Like Heathcliff, most of his allies hate Bloome and see him as a necessary evil. Despite how valuable he was to the United Court, most of them are glad to be rid of him when he dies
- Fat Bastard
- Hate Sink: Bloome is an utterly vile person with no redeeming qualities
- Might as Well Not Be in Prison at All
- One-Winged Angel: Glenn transforms him into a giant mushroom monster when the players defeat him again in the Orchestra
- Opportunistic Bastard: He took advantage of the famine to gain power by generating glamour himself. Later subverted, he is actually The Chessmaster, he was responsible for the famine and everything was part of his plan.
- Sinister Shades: There are no eyes beneath them, he has eye stalks instead
- The Team Benefactor: He provides glamour to not only the Shadow/ United Court, but all of Creekwater. This provides his allies with lots of resources and more importantly, leverage.
- Undignified Death: He is stabbed and beaten, and finally bleeds out sinking in water filled with his own shit
- Villainous Breakdown: When Suzanna and Arlo destroy the Id’s Glamour reservoir. Once again when Glenn abandons him
- Villain Decay: After his resurrection, he has become much less composed and pragmatic, only caring about killing Mori, indulging in constant pleasure, and staying out of hell
Thurston Langley
The CEO of Don Queso and Birchmire’s son-in-law
- Affably Evil
- Big Bad Wannabe: Thurston is built up as a major threat to the players, but ultimately His plan only gets as far as killing Vincenzo before falling apart completely, and he is killed by the Beast
- Eccentric Millionaire
- Faux Affably Evil
- Half the Man He Used to Be: The Beast cuts him in half down the middle
- It Amused Me: Why is Thurston plotting a coup to kill the Grand Lord and seize power for himself? He’s bored
- Scary Shiny Glasses
- Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: To Frank
- The Starscream: He is plotting to assassinate Vincenzo
- The Team Benefactor
Myranda Birchmire
Harvey’s youngest daughter
- Ax-Crazy
- Black Sheep: What she has become after the rest of her family has turned their back on the Beast, while she continues to fight for him
- Black Widow
- Cool Big Sis: To Nancy
- Daddy's Little Villain
- Disproportionate Retribution: Nearly any offense to her family is a death sentence from her. She has killed for things as small as swearing while her young nieces were in the car.
- The Dragon: Becomes a last minute one for the Beast
- Family-Values Villain: She loves her family above all else and will do anything to protect them or “restore their honor”
- Hero with Bad Publicity: How she sees herself when her family finally breaks away from the United Court
- Honey Trap: She pretends to be seduced by Chloe in order to place a spying spell on her back during sex
- Honor Before Reason
- Karma Houdini: Other than being imprisoned for a bit, she suffers no real consequences for her actions.
Low Council
Bliss
The CEO of Blisscorp, a problematic beauty company
- The Bad Guy Wins: Downplayed. She is defeated and killed by the party, but still is able to become Creekwater for a little while, flooding her with the love of the townspeople
- Blob Monster
- Cannibalism Superpower: She gains the traits of anything she consumes. This becomes a problem when when she sets her sights on the Town Key, the avatar of Creekwater itself
- Dragon Lady: Downplayed. She isn’t Asian, the body she currently inhabits is
- Evil Former Friend: Revealed to be one to Granny
- Genius Loci: She turns into one for Creekwater after consuming the Town Key
- Grand Theft Me: She steals the bodies of others routinely
- Green-Eyed Monster: Her main character trait.
- Hero Killer: She kills Lord Eredin in the catacombs
Abigail Bridges
The vicious head of the PTA
- Abusive Parents: Among other things, she forced her daughter to star in a TV show she wrote about how having her ruined her life
- All for Nothing: In the afterlife, Gail realizes how meaningless her cruelty was now that she’s dead
- Devour the Dragon: She eats her husband in the battle at the resort battle to heal herself
- Kick the Dog: Virtually everything she does to her daughter
- Killed Mid-Sentence: She’s still rambling about her testicles when Suzanna slashes her throat
- Squick: After eating her husband, she grows a pair of testicles on the side of her head
- What the Hell Is That Accent?: she does a horrible fake British accent because she thinks it makes her sound more cultured
Demographic
A monster that can control media
- Back from the Dead: The Beast drags him out of the afterlife along with Bloome
- Brain Washing: His primary method of attack
- The Dragon: To Bliss
- Dying Dream: The players help him relive a memory of dancing with his wife to comfort him in his last moments
- Even Evil Has Standards: As unhinged as he is, he is against killing
- Expy: Based on Mr. Nobody
- Forced into Evil: After his resurrection, the Beast forces him to comply with him by threatening his son’s family
- Freudian Excuse: Being sent off to fight in the Second World War only to come back and have his career fall apart was what started his descent to villainy
- The Host: He often talks one. this is because he was once a popular radio show host during the 30s, before the rise of television made him irrelevant
- Humanoid Abomination
- Irony: He hates TV, but becomes a creature of TV after using magic to try to destroy it
- Performance Anxiety: He suffered an extreme version of this that made it impossible to pursue an acting career, leading him to become a radio host instead.
- Tragic Monster: At the end of the day, Demographic is a lonely man stuck in limbo desperately trying to relive the good old days, too scared to accept change
Enforcers
Eugene Kraster
Birchmire’s second-in-command, who has a talent of coming back from the dead
- Affably Evil: Like his master
- The Dragon: To Birchmire
- Driven to Suicide: He seems to always want to die, not that it really matters because he comes back
- Nightmare Fetishist: It seems like he has some kind of kink for dying. Subverted. The real reason that he wants to die all the time is more wholesome. He’s actually using his deaths as opportunities to visit his young son who died of cancer in the afterlife
- Resurrective Immortality
- Suicide Attack: His most common utility
The Handler
A well-dressed man that uses United Court prisoners for missions
- Big Brother Bully: To Polly
- Disc-One Final Boss: He’s a major concern up until the prisoners get their collars removed. After that, he’s not really much of a big deal and is easily taken down
- Explosive Leash: He uses these on all of the prisoners he controls
- Expy: Of Amanda Waller
- Faux Affably Evil
Joshua Gray
A private school student with a crush on Suzanna
- Abhorrent Admirer
- Even Evil Has Standards: It’s clear that Joshua is uncomfortable with the increasing brutally of the United Court, but by now, they’re the only allies he has left.
- Fashion-Victim Villain: During year 2 he wears a cloak and medieval-style armor…and a pair of bright blue crocs
- Fate Worse than Death: He is pushed off the bridge by Joshua, falling out of the Orchestra and through a bunch of other dimensions. He ends up landing in Twitter.com, where he stays trapped for a whole year
- Freudian Excuse: As loathsome as he is, his home life is pretty awful. His mother clearly preferred his older brother, and after she was arrested, she stopped paying any attention to Joshua and even spent his college fund on liquor
- Hypocrite: It’s perfectly fine for him to insult Suzanna, but when Trent does it, that’s crossing a line!
- Jaded Washout: His fate at the end
- Jerkass: Despite having a crush on Suzanna, he’s pretty nasty towards her, and even nastier towards her friends
- Karma Houdini: Joshua gets out alive and well in the end, but his reputation is ruined, and with his powerful allies all dead, he has little chance of accomplishing anything.
- The Mole: In the Winter Court
- Never My Fault: Through some impressive mental gymnastics, he convinces himself that Rowan is an abuser and Suzanna’s friends are toxic, so his actions are justified
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: He ends up on the receiving end of one from Rowan
- Sanity Slippage: He slowly grows more unhinged and delusional as the campaign goes on
Glenn Wells
A deranged drug-addict that works for Bloome
- Addled Addict
- Ax-Crazy
- The Dragon: To Bloome after Vandal’s death
- Dragon Their Feet: He outlives Bloome simply by running away
- Half the Man He Used to Be: He is cut in half in the fight, not that it really bothers him
- Mushroom Man: A more subtle example. It isn’t immediately noticeable, but he is infested with fungi that live mostly inside his body
- The Pig-Pen
- Put on a Bus: following his master’s death, he disappears for the rest of sophomore year but is noted to still be in Creekwater
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: During the fight with him in Bloome’s cell, he runs away once his henchmen are taken out
Vandal “Big V” Sinclair
Salvatore Bloome’s second in command
- Big Bad Wannabe: Vandal wants to usurp Bloome and take his role but lacks the skill or intelligence, and is taken out easily.
- Ephebophile: He dates middle schoolers
- Karmic Death: He suffers the same fate he threatened Mori with once they turn the tables on him
- The Starscream
- Stewed Alive: Bloome boils him alive in his hot tub for his betrayal
- Weasel Co-Worker
Genevieve Pike
A corrupt police officer that works for the Shadow Court
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Stabbed in the crotch, cut open, and run over by a train. Not that she didn’t deserve it
- Frame-Up: Frames Frank for theft
- Hate Sink: Pike, other than just being a bitch, is a pedophile and corrupt police officer that takes advantage of her position to exploit children
Subjects
Esme and Prudence Langley
Two sisters that work for the Beast
- Always Identical Twins: The only difference between the two (according to them) is that Esme thinks the opposite of fire is water and Prudence thinks the opposite of fire is no fire
- Decapitation Presentation: They put Kraster’s severed head on top of a snowman after Heathcliff kills him at the Christmas party
- I Surrender, Suckers: When defeated, they beg for the party’s mercy. When they get it, they rob the players in their sleep, and flee in a stolen truck
Trent Langley
The oldest son of the Langley family
- Bad People Abuse Animals: Trent tests his poisons on neighborhood dogs
- Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Trent conspires against the United Court’s rulers with his father and then turns on him when they get caught
- Blood from Every Orifice: As he dies from Mori’s poison
- Duel to the Death: Leading up to the finale, he challenges Mori to a poisoning duel. He doesn’t win
- Hero Killer: While he doesn’t deliver the final blow, his attack is what leads to Suzanna being killed by Heathcliff
- Mouth of Sauron: Trent, usually escorted by Joshua, is often sent to deliver messages to the Sunset Court despite having almost no social skills
- Phrase Catcher: “Fucking Trent”
- Villainous Friendship: He has an incredibly toxic and abusive one with Joshua Gray
Arthur Osborne
John Osborne’s father
- Can't Kill You, Still Need You: He can’t harm Suzanna, Mori, or Adler without hurting his son
- Catchphrase: “Poor, sweet Johnny Boy”
- The Dog Was the Mastermind
- Enemy Mine: He fights Gambino’s men and eventually ends up being the one to kill him. Later, he ends up working against the United Court because “they’re a bad influence on Johnny Boy”
- Irony: He fakes being a senile old man in his first few appearances in freshman year. When he reappears in Junior year, he has developed Alzheimer’s.
- Never My Fault: Well, never his son’s fault. He holds everyone responsible for John’s actions except John himself
- Put on a Bus: He is absent for all of sophomore year
- Redemption Quest: He wants to help his son in order to make up for not being there for him before
Iris Bridges
Abigail’s daughter
- Reluctant Fanservice Girl: She is pressured into modeling and competing in pageants by her mother
Kendephiles Killigan
One of the Court’s slimy lawyers.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: His arguments for protecting the Beast in its parasitic state are reminiscent of the Pro-Life movement
Prisoners
Nancy (Spoilers)
A redcap punk, and the new player character following Suzanna’s death
- Cool Big Sis: Acts like this to Colin
- I'm a Humanitarian: She goes not hesitate to eat bits of her opponents
- The Mole
Morgan
A rock-obsessed boggan
- Hero of Another Story: They were one of the main characters in the Camp Jackalope campaign
- Non-Human Non-Binary: Downplayed since most characters aren’t human
- Shrink Ray: They can shrink and grow objects with their magic
Lenworth
An eccentric Summer Court inventor, later taken prisoner by the United Court
- Big Good: Of the prisoner side-game
Niles
A mysterious “reality hacker”
- Hopeless Suitor: He has a crush on Nancy, who already has feelings for Jamie C.
- Playful Hacker
Natasha
The Ironblood
Khazan
The aggressive and paranoid leader of the Ironblood
- Ambiguous Disorder: He seems to be suffering from schizophrenia or something among those lines
- Anti-Villain: While Khazan and his faction are brutal in their methods, his overall goal of freeing Creekwater from the United Court is a noble one
- Ax-Crazy
- Big Bad Wannabe: Ralph and Orin end up being the real threats in the Ironblood, while Khazan mostly lurks in the background until he is unceremoniously killed by Boggs
- The Caligula
- The Faceless: Khazan hides his face by using illusion magic to make it appear like someone else’s
- Master of Disguise
- The Paranoiac
- Properly Paranoid: In the end, his fears end up being justified, and when he sets them aside, he is killed almost instantly
- Well-Intentioned Extremist
Orin Worth
A strict Ironblood general
- All for Nothing: His master plan against the United Court fails horribly and leads to not only his death but the complete annihilation of the Ironblood
- Anti-Villain
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The Beast tears his stomach open and then tears his head and spine out
- Dark and Troubled Past: His daughter was kidnapped, tortured, and held for ransom by Castlehead. When they paid the ransom, he just sent pieces of her dismembered corpse. Castlehead got away with it unpunished, and when he tried to confront the Shadow Court about it, the Beast shredded his face
- Dragon-in-Chief: He’s much more responsible and sane than Khazan, leading to most seeing him as the real boss of the Ironblood
- Facial Horror
- Rage Breaking Point: Hearing the Judge make another promise after not helping for so long causes Orin to snap and kill him with cold iron
- Speech Impediment: He has a heavy lisp and stutter due to his injuries
- Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds
Red Tommy
A deadly warrior who was imprisoned 40 years before being freed by the Sunset Court
- Affably Evil
- Bad Guys Do the Dirty Work: During the attack on the United Court compound, the prisoners show Tommy mercy. He’s only defeated when Castlehead brutally maims him
- The Berserker
- Blind Weapon Master
- Cool Old Guy
- The Dragon: To Boss
- Hostage Situation: His end goal was to have Cletus mind control Creekwater’s people into attacking the United Court, which would force the High King to intervene to avoid letting innocents die
- Likable Villain: To the point where to one even wants to fight him when he attacks
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: He is based on Tom Waits, particularly his gravelly voice
- Super-Senses: His sense of smell and hearing and enhanced to make up for his lack of sight
Leslie
The soft-spoken representative of the Ironblood
- Casual Kink: Their outfit resembles bondage gear, and they are very open about their sex life
- Mouth of Sauron
- Token Good Teammate: Leslie is the least antagonistic member of the Ironblood the players encounter
“Boss”
An agent hidden in the Sunset Court who has been leaking intel to the Ironblood. See Ralph Pinnick for more info
Cletus Heidnik
A former children’s doctor that works for the Ironblood
- Mad Doctor
- Squick: His use of foreskin in his magic
- Sympathetic Magic: His whole deal
- Token Evil Teammate: In an organization full of Anti-Villains, Cletus is a disgusting, cruel man that just wants to perform his destructive magic
Independent Fey and Fey from past Courts
The Judge
The highest impartial authority in Creekwater
- Adipose Rex: He is technically the most powerful figure in Creekwater, and is so obese that he cannot move without the assistance of a crane
- Awakening the Sleeping Giant: After he is informed of the Thallain’s treachery, he finally starts to take action. That is until Orin kills him
- Judicial Wig
- Lawful Neutral
- Lawful Stupid: The Judge’s insistence on staying neutral causes much more harm then good
- Mighty Glacier
- Slashed Throat: How Orin kills him
- Stern Old Judge
Marie
The owner of a local nightclub
- Drag Queen
- Macho Camp
- Mama Bear: Messing with the residents of her club is a bad idea
- Team Mom: She looks out for the outcast residents of Creekwater, in particular, queer teens that have been disowned by their family.
- Team Switzerland: She stays out of fey politics, fearing that it would put a target on her club and the people that seek refuge in it
Donald Callahan
Guidance counselor at Creekwater High
- Adults Are Useless: He’s a pretty shitty guidance counselor and usually ends up making everything worse. Justified in that it’s really just a cover for his revenge plot
- All for Nothing: Callahan spends years capturing Nightmare Chimera for his plan to get revenge on Kestrel and the Summer Court. His plan fails completely, Kestrel doesn’t even hear his speech about all the wrong he did, and the giant chimera he unleashes during his Last Stand only manages to kill him before being instantly killed by Summer Court guards
- Faux Affably Evil
- Freudian Excuse: He was tortured and nearly executed with cold iron by Kestrel for the atrocities he committed during the Sidhe regime. His fey side was destroyed, but he held onto his memories, forcing him to simply watch a whole other side of life he can’t be a part of anymore.
- Just Desserts: He is devoured by one of his nightmare chimera
- Powered by a Forsaken Child: The nightmare chimera he uses are born from the misery he inflicts on the students
- Smug Snake
- Starter Villain
- Villainous Breakdown: Once his plans are foiled, he goes on a drunken rampage and takes Colin hostage
Madame Finch
The High King’s ambassador to the United Court
- Can't Argue with Elves
- Condescending Compassion: Her defining trait. She essentially assumes anyone below her or that doesn’t agree with her is a moron and talks down to them like a child
- Gonk
- Villain Has a Point: While she is correct about how the division between courts makes fey more vulnerable to outside threats, her solution of just blindly going along with whatever the United Court does isn’t exactly ideal
Summer Court
Grand Lord Roderick
The young, video game-addicted ruler of the Summer Court
- Defiant to the End: He spends his last moments mocking Vincenzo and telling him he’ll never be a true leader
- Young and in Charge: He is 14 years old, and the leader of the entire Summer Court
Eredin
A laid pack lord that loves to party, also Suzanna’s boss
- The Beautiful Elite: As is traditional for Sidhe
- Benevolent Boss: Despite mostly using them for his dirty work, he treats his squires pretty well. Except for Candace
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Horrifically burned by Bliss and left to die in the catacombs
- Heroic Sacrifice: Rather than saving himself from Bliss, he opens a portal to allow everyone else to escape
- Royals Who Actually Do Something
The Thallain
David Boggs
An elderly bogeyman sniper
- An Arm and a Leg: Colin tears off his arm during his fight with Nancy
- BFG: The massive sniper rifle he carries around. He needs a magic gauntlet to even pick it up
- Even Evil Can Be Loved. He has a daughter who loves him and is concerned about him. This doesn’t stop Nancy from attacking him right in front of her
- Grumpy Old Man
- Hero Killer: He shoots down Art after she saves Suzanna and kills some of his men
- Hate Sink
- Karmic Death: He bursts into flames after Colin damages his gauntlet. As Colin points out, Boggs could have survived if he deactivated it, but he was so fixated on killing the party that he burned to death instead
- Kick the Dog: He commands his forces to massacre a group of fleeing Sunset Court civilians out of spite, leading the the death of Florence and several others
- Kill Tally: He etches a stick figure on his gauntlet for everyone he kills
- Old Soldier
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Nearly every line of his dialogue contains a slur or bigoted insult
- Retired Monster: Boggs committed numerous atrocities during the Vietnam War, mostly on civilians. These days are behind him now, although he still brags about them. He has found a new calling as a Thallain General
- Sociopathic Soldier
- Straw Nihilist: He is so disgusted by the modern world that he goes as far as to claim it would be better if everyone just died.
- Things That Go "Bump" in the Night
- Would Hurt a Child
Jason “Castlehead” Teale
A murderous ogre warrior with a gruesome reputation
- And Show It to You: How Nancy finishes him off
- Arch-Enemy: To Nancy and Orin
- The Bully: Jason constantly taunts, threatens and insults the people around him.
- The Brute
- The Corrupter: Under his influence, the United Court sinks further into depravity
- Entitled Bastard: His defining trait.
- Facial Horror: His horns are horrifically malformed to the point where some of them are going in and out of head. One even comes out of his eye
- Hate Sink
- Hero Killer: He kills Florence while attacking the fleeing Sunset Court civilians
- It's All About Me
- The Minion Master
- Politically Incorrect Villain: He calls Nancy “half breed” and “mutt”
- Red Baron
- Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: He enslaves and brainwashes redcaps to act as his hunting dogs
- The Social Darwinist: In his twisted logic, his actions are justified because he’s powerful enough to do them
- Spoiled Brat: What he truly is behind his strong persona. He fully reverts to this when he realizes Nancy is going to kill him, bursting into tears and yelling about his parents are going to ruin Nancy for what they did to him
- That One Boss: He had THIRTY levels of HP
- Too Dumb to Live: Maybe demanding the Sunset Court, who he had just seen kill Boggs and Carmichael, let him rape their women wasn’t a good idea, Jason
- Would Hurt a Child: He tortured and murdered Orin’s young daughter simply for fun
Jean-Baptiste Dradin
A perverted mandrake wizard
- Beware the Quiet Ones: While Dradin is more quiet and reserved compared to his loud mouthed companions, he is just as depraved as them
- Catchphrase: “Come here my little sexy boy!”
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Upon escaping, Birchmire shoves Dradin into a wood-chipper
- Depraved Homosexual
- Fate Worse than Death: He inflicted this on an entire town by slowly and painfully turning them into trees
- Nightmare Fetishist
- Plant Person
- Small Role, Big Impact: He only appears briefly before dying, but his enslavement and humiliation of Birchmire is what finally causes him to change sides
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Dradin gets less focus compared to the rest of the Thallain before his brutal death
Roger Carmichael
A goblin torturer that oversees the dungeons
- And I Must Scream: Thanks to his healing magic, he can keep his victims alive through everything he does. Natasha says he once reduced her to a severed head
- Churchgoing Villain: He doesn’t torture on Sundays
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Mori tears his limbs off with vines
- The Dragon: To Castlehead
- Family-Values Villain: Carmichael has a wife and children that are completely obvious to his horrific double life
- Four Eyes, Zero Soul
- No Historical Figures Were Harmed: Like several other villains, he is based off a real serial killer. In this case, David Parker Ray, the Toybox Killer
- Stupid Evil: As vicious as he is, he’s an utter moron and Nancy easily outwits him
- Torture Technician
The Shadow King
The leader of the Thallain, and the ultimate personification of evil
- Big Bad Wannabe
- Gonk
- The Load: He does nothing but whine and harass the prisoners throughout their journey
- Satanic Archetype: He is technically the Changeling version of the devil
Mortals and other Supernaturals
Chris Mcallister
Suzanna’s close friend
- Damsel in Distress: She is kidnapped by Kinkaid’s followers during Junior year
- Fangirl: Briefly becomes a deranged Greysky Academy fan due to Demographic’s brainwashing
- A Friend in Need
- Muggle Best Friend: To Suzanna
- Took a Level in Cheerfulness: She is much happier now that she feels comfortable expressing her identity
- Trans Tribulations
Ricky Wilson
Jamie C.’s right hand man
- The Dragon: To Jamie C., and later Kinkaid
- Jerk Jock
- The Starscream
- Token Black Friend
- Uncle Tomfoolery: Ricky later admits that he purposefully plays into this trope to climb up the social latter, being the wacky black friend that makes all the powerful white people feel validated
Marvin Icehead
The principal of Creekwater High
- Adults Are Useless: Despite being one of the least malicious authority figures in the campaign, Icehead’s utter stupidity and immaturity allow all sorts of evil to take place in his school
- Clueless Boss
- Horrible Judge of Character
- Manchild: He acts like a teenager and clearly cannot handle any of his responsibility
- Putting the "Pal" in Principal: He buys his students food, seemingly never punishes anyone, and even hands out cigarettes. He even lets Rowan borrow his car! (Which he drives into the lake)
Dorothy Osborne
John Osborne’s mother
- Asshole Victim: Mrs. Green is the only one bothered when she is murdered
- Greater-Scope Villain: Her cruelty was a major reason for Osborne’s hatred of women, leading to the killing spree that kicks off the plot
- Jerkass
- Racist Grandma
Calroy Hoskins
Frank’s wealthy father, who is fully paralyzed other than his hand and eyes
- Abusive Parents
- The Bluebeard: It is implied he regularly murders his wives to collect insurance
- Dirty Old Man: Makes several creepy remarks towards his own granddaughter
- Evil Cripple
- Expy: Based off Livia Soprano
- Hate Sink: Despite his financial support of the players, Calroy is an utterly despicable and loathsome person
- Machine Monotone: His text-to-voice device that he operates with his only working hand
- Small Name, Big Ego
- The Team Benefactor: He provides funds for the Sunset Court despite his hatred of fey. It becomes clear that he’s only doing it to take Frank feel worse for disobeying him
Samuel Kinkaid
A loud mouthed televangelist that somehow knows that fey exist
- Bald of Evil
- The Corruptible: The Thallain used visions to manipulate Kinkaid in order to get him to pick off weak fey
- Evil Is Hammy: “EMMELINE TAYLOR VANDERBILT IS A LYING BITCH AND A MURDERER”
- From Nobody to Nightmare: Kinkaid starts off as raving madman used for comic relief and satire, but by junior year, him and his cult have become a very real threat to Creekwater
- The Fundamentalist
- Insane Troll Logic: Nearly everything that comes out of his mouth. Most notably his endorsement of drunk driving
- Laser-Guided Karma: As he tries to escape, he is hit by a drunk driver
- Politically Incorrect Villain
- Sinister Minister
- Villain with Good Publicity: Despite being a registered sex offender (although to be fair he was falsely accused), Kinkaid is still a trusted figure in the community
Rodrigo
One of Mori’s clients who has a fractured relationship with his daughter
- The Big Guy
- Muggle Best Friend: To Mori
- Papa Wolf
- Retired Monster: It is implied that he was once some sort of gangster or hitman, but he left that life behind to start a family
The Australians
A duo of teleporting hitmen that specialize in the supernatural
- Ambiguously Gay: It’s not clear if they are a couple or just best friends
- Awesome Aussie
- Big Guy, Little Guy
- Hunter of Monsters
- Punch-Clock Villain: They are perfectly decent people when they’re not at work
- Those Two Guys
- Vitriolic Best Buds: They bicker and argue constantly but still care for each other deeply and usually just hug it out
This work contains examples of:
- Adults Are Useless
- Anti-Climax Boss: The Ironblood, who are built up as a major threat, only to be completely wiped out by the United Court in one session
- Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: When changelings live long enough and gather enough power, they ascend into true fae. This eventually happens to Granny
- Arc Villain
- Callahan for sessions 1-4
- Demographic and Bliss for sessions 5-10
- John and Arthur Osborne for sessions 11-14
- Bloome for sessions 15-21
- There isn’t a specific one for sessions 22-25, but the closest is probably Thurston and Trent Langley
- Khazan seems to have been this during the timeskip at the end of sophomore year
- Kinkaid for sessions 27-31
- Red Tommy and Cletus Heidnik for sessions 32-34
- Ascended Extra: Polly, who was just supposed to be The Dragon to Kestrel and ending up being a regular supporting character, and Chris who was supposed to just be a one off character and ending up being one of Suzanna’s closest friends.
- Alternative Character Interpretation
- Lord Kestrel. A vicious, irresponsible zealot who’s hypocrisy and cowardice lead to the downfall of the Summer Court?? Or a devoted, strong leader who tried his best and acted realistically for the situation he was in?
- Samuel Kinkaid. Selfish conman that exploits other’s faith and ignorance for attention, power and money? Or actual Christian that genuinely believes he’s helping the townspeople and doing the right thing
- Atrocious Alias: Joshua’s twitch username is “spinyrimjob47”
- Badass Family: The Hoskins
- Being Evil Sucks: As powerful as the Shadow Court is, being a member is a miserable experience. Everyone hates each other and are constantly scheming against each other. Most of the lower ranked members are treated horribly by the higher ups or even randomly killed.
- Big Bad: The Beast
- Big Bad Ensemble: Junior year pits the party against The Beast, Samuel Kinkaid, Khazan, and their respective factions
- Big Good: Granny
- Body Horror: The Beast and Glenn often invoke this
- Bolivian Army Cliffhanger: Nancy, Winston, and Harvey about to fight the Thallain forces
- Chekhov's Gun: The Town Key
- Clockwork Creature: These are very common around the courts, usually created by Lenworth
- Complete Monster
- The Thallain as a whole are a clan of savage, hedonistic criminals. They are so powerful and disconnected with the real world, that they view everyone around them as objects to be toyed with, tormenting enemies and allies alike. In addition to all of this, they are incredibly racist, sexist, and even homophobic, despite one of their leaders being gay. They’re basically a bunch of psychotic frat boys
- Covert Group with Mundane Front: All of the Courts do this. The Summer Court was accessed through a porta potty, the Shadow Court through a tomb, and the United Court has multiple entrances that are accessed through a chain pizzeria called Don Queso
- Crapsaccharine World
- Decoy Protagonist: Stephen, who seems like he was gonna be a major character, even having his mysterious backstory teased, only to be unceremoniously killed off about ten minutes after he appears
- Dude, Where's My Reward?: Samuel Kinkaid takes the credit after the party saves the children from Democraphic
- Draco in Leather Pants: In universe. Frank refuses to see Calroy as who he really is, insisting that he’s a misunderstood old man that’s just confused by the strange new world. Also Esme viewing John Osborne as a sexy rogue rather than a misogynistic serial killer
- Dream Land: The Dreaming
- The Empire: The Shadow Court, oh sorry, I mean the United Court
- Even Evil Has Standards: Pretty much everyone else in the Shadow Court is disgusted by Bloome and Heathcliff
- Everyone Is Bi: The majority of characters are canonically bi
- Evil Teacher: Most of them, notably Ms. Powell and Mr. Lewis
- The Fair Folk: Most notably Heathcliff
- Fantastic Nuke: The Winter’s Cauldron
- Flanderization: The Ironblood portray the Sunset Court as a bunch of centrist hippies that just want everyone to get along
- Good Parents
- The Hoskins. Bonus points for Frank, who doesn’t understand any of the fey stuff, but loves Lori and his kids enough to follow them through it regardless. In session 20, he is fully willing to confront Heathcliff for what he did to Dorina. However does lose points for not standing up for them to his father.
- Chris’s parents, who fully support her throughout her transition, and protect her no matter what. Her dad goes as far as to beat up Mr. Callahan for outing her.
- The Nelsons, despite being hippies that raised a drug dealer. They join the Sunset Court, not caring about the danger, just wanting to support their child
- The Carlmans relentlessly support everything that Arlo does
- Growing Up Sucks: This is Changeling: The Dreaming after all
- Hate Sink
- Gambino, the Lord that replaced Eredin. He was a spoiled brat that was rude, petty, and spiteful to the players throughout this short appearance. In addition, he fetishes Japanese culture and kept a huge collection of stolen Japanese artifacts. He went as far as to try to have the party killed during the road trip arc purely because they kept insulting him.
- Salvatore Bloome, also known as the King Crab, a vicious sociopath motivated purely by greed. He is the one responsible for the Famine, one of Creekwater’s biggest tragedies, as well as the fall of the Summer Court. Apart from this, he is just a vile person who acts entitled and condescending to everyone around him.
- Genevieve Pike, the corrupt pedophile cop that works for the Shadow Court. Even before her crimes are revealed, Pike is a rude, childish bully. She also arrests Frank violently right in front of his family, and kicks Jasper.
- Calroy Hoskins, Frank’s abusive father. He hates all fey and treats Frank’s wife and children like garbage, especially Stella. Calroy constantly insults people and then plays the victim, whining about how sad his life his life is and how everyone abandons him.
- All of the Thallain are terrible void of any redeeming qualities
- Heroic Sacrifice: Deconstructed. When Kestrel is tortured and threatened by Bloome, he sells out the Summer Court rather than dying in honor. While this makes him a hypocrite, you can’t really blame him for being scared of death. He had romanticized the idea of sacrificing himself for his court before, but when that moment comes, he realizes there’s nothing romantic or glamorous about throwing his life away, and can’t go through with it.
- Hufflepuff House: The Winter Court receives very little focus before it’s destruction at the hands of Birchmire’s forces
- Karma Houdini: Subverted with the Thallain. They finish their job, and prepare to leave town, while spending the night in luxury hotel rooms, only for all of their generals to be brutally murdered by Nancy and Mori
- Killed Off for Real: Cold iron destroys the fae and mortal side of a kithain, killing them completely. So far, the only character to suffer this fate is Bloome
- La Résistance: The Sunset Court
- Lethal Joke Character: Granny describes the Shadow Court as “an inside joke that got taken way too far”
- Love Confession: All of them are incredibly weird and awkward. Most of all Mori confessing to Penny during the Halloween party. Penny doesn’t recognize then in their costume and rejects this mysterious stranger because she already has a crush on Mori
- Luxury Prison Suite: Thanks to Bloome’s connections, he is able to escape to one after the glamour harvesting ring is destroyed. He was even to get a hot tub installed
- MacGuffin: The keys to the town, which give whoever holds it the power to control the town’s very essence, and mold it like clay
- The Magic Goes Away: Downplayed with the Dream Famine
- The Masquerade: Most of Creekwater is completely unaware of the supernatural
- Moral Event Horizon
- Heathcliff crosses it within the first 10 minutes of his introduction by killing Stephen.
- Callahan kidnapping Colin and taking him hostage
- Birchmire taking control of the clay soldiers and using them to massacre defenseless Summer Court fey
- Bloome starting the dream famine that killed 53 people just to fill his pockets
- The Beast tricking the party to protecting him by creating Neo, a sentient “cocoon”, and then killing him when he emerged
- Trent shooting Suzanna with a poisoned arrow, leaving her to die at Heathcliff’s hands
- Noodle Incident: Pretty much everything that happened during the timeskip
- Nightmare of Normality: Esme and Prudence do this to the party during their first encounter
- Pædo Hunt: Coach Thomas, Lola Chambers, Genevieve Pike
- Plot-Triggering Death: Castlehead’s brutal murder of Audrey Worth causes much of Junior year’s conflict after he returns
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Oh boy. Gambino, John Osborne, Mr. Lewis, Mrs. Powell, Mr. Callahan, Lola Chambers, Bloome, Vandal, and the rest of their game, Arthur Osborne, Kinkaid, Genevieve Pike, and a few others
- Portal Door: How most Courts are accessed
- Psychic-Assisted Suicide: Amber reluctantly does this to one of Bloome’s goons
- The Republic: The Summer Court
- Road Trip Plot: The patty’s journey across America during the second half of freshman year
- The Scrappy: Vincenzo Romano
- Soap Within a Show: Graysky Academy, the horrible, exploitative teen mental health drama created by Lola Chambers that Suzanna and Chloe briefly star in
- Superhuman Trafficking: Bloome and his gang traffic fey and harvest glamour from them by trapping them in a coma tormenting them with intense nightmares and illusions
- Start My Own: The players decide to start their own court rather than submitting to the United Court
- Stepford Suburbia
- Sucky School: Creekwater High
- Tear Jerker:
- Eredin’s Heroic Sacrifice
- Demographic accepting reality and dying
- Clockwork Penny’s brutal murder
- The destruction of the makeout house
- Town with a Dark Secret
- Urban Fantasy
- Welcomed to the Masquerade: The exposition dump that is given to new fey is referred to as “the urban fantasy speech”
- Wham Episode:
- Session 16, where the Summer and Winter Courts are destroyed and the Grand Lord is killed and replaced by Vincenzo
- Session 26, where Vincenzo is assassinated, Neo is revealed to be the Beast’s cocoon, and a battle breaks out that ends with Suzanna’s death
- Wham Line:
- “Hello Mori”
- Why Am I Ticking?: The Shadow Court kicks off their siege on Summer Court by hiding a bomb in Kraster’s suitcase that detonates when when he opens it at the meeting
- World of Jerkass: Creekwater is a very unforgiving place filled to the brim with horrible people