Agatha

Setup: Solo T&T play in a Friday the 13th (TV show) scenario.

Agatha is the new owner of an antique store she inherited from her late uncle, who also sold Satanically cursed items. Her job is to get them back.

She has an assistant: a talking cat named Fiddlesticks ( Ficks for short) (MR 9). Agatha can level Ficks up using her own AP.

Idea: structure adventures with randomly determined elements:

• cursed item
• number of secondary characters
• plot archetype:
  • overcoming the monster
  • rags to riches
  • the quest
  • voyage and return
  • comedy
  • tragedy
  • rebirth
• story beats (logical narrative thread)

2 competing mechanisms:

1. 2d6-7 "oracle" to determine what's happening
2. T&T Skill Roll to determine character's ability to handle things

How to avoid having one or the other take over completely? 2025-03-31: The Beginning {{{1

Cursed Item: A pin that grants or maintains good looks.

• Does she read something in the paper? No.
• On the TV? No, and... her TV actually acts kind of funny in the store. Sometimes she picks up TV stations from Singapore. Other times it seems to act like a crystal ball. Not today, though.
• From a customer? No.

She's returning from the grocery store when suddenly someone lunges out from a side alley, grabbing at her. She doesn't freak out, luckily (L1 v CHA, +9 AP). It is a man, a hideously ugly man, and he seems to be in great pain.

She asks him if he's alright.

• Can he answer? Yes. He says, "A witch...My neck... she..." and then he collapses, dead.

She inspects him, but doesn't find anything wrong with him (L1 v INT, +4 AP).

• Has anyone else seen what's happening? No.

She searches his body (L1 v LUK, +10 AP) and finds an ornate brooch in the shape of a dragonfly.

2025-04-01: The Continuing {{{1

Agatha picks it up.

• Does anything happen? Yes. It springs to life and starts flying away.

She tries to grab it (L1 v DEX, +8 AP), but misses. It flies back into the alley. She follows it.

• Does she see it? Yes, and... she also sees someone else.

The dragonfly flies into the figure's outstretched hand at the far end of the alley. It is a woman, hunched over, with a horribly misshapen face. One eye is completely buried inside a deep knot of flesh. The hand that now holds the flying brooch is as twisted as a tree root. She sees Agatha, turns, and shuffles around the corner and out of sight. Agatha pursues.

• Does she see the woman? No.
• Does she see anything out of the ordinary? Yes, and... It's the woman, walking away down the sidewalk.

Agatha runs up behind her, saying, "Excuse me, Ma'am..."

The woman turns around. But it's not her. This woman is lovely, with a model's good looks. She looks surprised. "Yes?" she says.

"Oh! Sorry, my mistake," Agatha says, confused. The clothes are the same. But this is not the deformed figure from before. "Have you... did you happen to see anyone go by here just now? An old woman?"

"Sorry, no." The model smiles.

• Does Agatha notice anything about the model? No (L1 v IQ, +5 AP).

2025-04-09: The Continuing: Part II {{{1

Agatha, baffled, walks away.

Several days later she sees an article in the newspaper about the dead man. It says he was a 23-year-old man named Jonathan. The picture looks roughly like the man she saw, but there's no way he was the same man.

Then it occurs to her. The old woman. The young woman. The old man. This young man.

It has to be a cursed item.

• Does she find anything in the manifold? Yes. It's a dragonfly-shaped pin, alright, and it has the power to drain the youth and beauty from its victims in order to feed them back to its owner.