StevenHanly

One afternoon, in late October, 1919, while Morrie was in his little office, he was visited by Fabien Smallwood, one of the patrons of the Big 25 saloon and jazz club, who was coming to him to help find his daughter, Alida. She had been last seen playing in front of her house. Nothing had hit the papers yet; this was a black girl, after all, and not someone “important enough” to make the news. He agreed to take the case, being sincerely concerned for the welfare of the girl. He started investigating, starting with the house Alida lived in, the street it was on, and all of the sight lines that someone could have used to watch her before taking her, making the assumption that the kidnapper may have stalked her for a while before snatching her. However, Morrie found that there was nothing conclusive about the street, the houses, and trees and shrubs in the yards. There were plenty of places that the kidnapper could have used to watch his victim. Morrie then went door to door, talking to

In the summer of 1914, an aviator flying a Wright Model B biplane offered rides at the State Fair. Morrie flew as a passenger a dozen times that day, using up all of his liquid cash. Being in the air caused Morrie to have an irrepressible grin; he couldn’t help it, and he didn’t even mind the bugs in his teeth. The pilot told him of the Army’s Aviation school at North Island, San Diego, California, that had been developed only a couple of years prior after moving from College Park, Maryland. The Army needed a flight school that could fly year-round, and not suffer from bad weather. Southern California provided this, while the winter weather in Maryland did not. He enlisted in the Army the next morning. Basic Training was in Camp Beauregard, so Morrie was spared the effects of the economic panic that occurred in Louisiana in late 1914 as the war overseas depressed markets. Throughout his training, he tried to be the model soldier. He felt he needed to be, in order to be considered to

Morrie is a character in a 1920 New Orleans modern fantasy game, where all the myths and stories are real. Magic exists, as do vampires, demons, angels, gods, and all of the other critters from folklore. This is actually in three parts: the main backstory, Morrie's Years in the Great War, and The Case of the Murderous Magician. Here is the main backstory. Maurice “Morrie” Brookfield was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at midnight on August 7, 1895. At least, that is what his mother told him, and his father was never there to dispute it. Growing up, he had the suspicion that his mother was not quite fully sane. She tended to talk to herself, and have conversations with people that weren’t there. As a child, Morrie found it amusing. Looking back on it as an adult, after what he saw in the Great War, he thinks it was something more sinister. But it was just a suspicion. “Morrie” said Anne, his mother, "You were conceived on Halloween." She looked at her son with a serious, intense

Elitheris is a character in a TTRPG I am running, belonging to my wife, Erin. Based upon her character, and what she told me about her character, I wrote the following backstory. Latespring 34, 802 AFE, Tondene Empire, Duchy of Knightsmill Elitheris had always been attracted to the wilderness. She enjoyed spending hours or even days in the subtropical forests around her home town. She preferred it to the town, actually. The solitude of the deep forests gave her the time for self introspection and the exploration of her latent magical abilities. Her home town of Celumarauca didn’t have any mages, so there was no one to properly teach her, only herself, struggling through learning how to manipulate the mana flows via intuition and risky experimentation. Her parents didn’t approve, citing the dangers, in no uncertain terms, that could be lethal. But she didn’t let that stop her. She would just have to be as careful as she could, and hope that she learned the magical incantations before