RPGaDay 2026 Day 9: Privilege

 And now we loop back to Ureka. Even though we created a female character for yesterday, our last NPC for Ureka was male (back on Day 1), so it's another female character to keep up variety.

Going with the notion of Privilege, let's assume that she's a member of the upper class of Ureka, closely associated with Carsonism, the specific flavor of Victorian Reconstructionism that inspired the reclamation of Ureka, and/or the previously mentioned timber barons.

I have nothing against the notion of a woman being a timber baroness, but my brain is sticking on the idea of a society matron; The woman who controls the gossip mill rather than the timber mill, and wields enormous social power. Because now that I have created a potential ally back on Day 1, I am now free to create something more antagonistic.

Mildred Dolbeer is the wife of reconstructed timber baron Lavinia Dolbeer (the last name is borrowed from historical Humboldt timber baron John Dolbeer). While Lavinia oversees the business operation, Mildred organizes their social calendar, planning luncheons and soirees, making sure that the right people are invited and the wrong people are kept out. She's also not above organizing whispering campaigns to steer opinions.

Her primary goal is to protect the reputation of her wife Lavinia. Unfortunately, by preventing her from experiencing blowback from bad, unpopular and harmful business actions, Lavinia has developed a casual callousness that makes future damage control constantly necessary.

Name: Mildred Dolbeer

Appearance: An imperious, heavyset woman in her early 40's in elaborately tailored dresses. Her pale blonde hair is wrapped like a crown around her head.

Quote: "I will not have that sort of thing happening here!"

Roleplaying: Mildred is saccharine and obsequious among the upper crust, and disdainful of those of the lower classes.

Background: Mildred was always an aggressive social climber. Her attachment, and later marriage, to Lavinia, was merely the latest step.

Key Info:

Mildred will protect Lavinia Dolbeer at all costs
Mildred has extensive connections and can open or close any social avenue to the party that she chooses.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 8: Resolve

Today gives us a look at our final Ruin through a female NPC. And since that last Ruin is Hupa, that puts me in a bit of a bind. Touching on Native American topics comes with real consequences for Doing It Wrong, which I really want to avoid.

The best defense is research. The second best defense is going so hard into the land of Make-Em-Up that everyone knows that you're not talking about something real. A solid backup is to avoid narratives about exploitation and give potential marginalized groups the power to determine their own fate.

As I was rolling this up, that last item was one of the things that I decided to lean into. The idea of this sort of Area 51 location seemed cool, but to place it in what is now a reservation had a lot of potential for exploitation. Some outside government used this area as a dumping ground for whatever weird weapons research or other unethical and bizarre things they were doing. Not very cool.

The idea that the Indigenous people living there made the choice to build that on their own is actually kinda cool. It becomes a mad rush for poorly considered power. It may have been stupid, but they would have the self-determination to make that stupid decision.

But because it is more or less lost, that also gives me a bit of of an out in terms of Native American representation. The "face" of the area doesn't have to be one of the people that lived there previously.

Let's say that, while nobody really remembers what Hupa became for a brief moment during the Collapse, it did leave a legacy. Spooky happenings make people think that the area is haunted. So a raider gang has decided to exploit that by using the area as a safehouse.

The leader of this gang is Raider Queen Sia.

Name: Raider Queen Sia

Appearance: A tall, athletic Asian woman. Her black hair is cut short on the sides, with the rest of it just long enough to jut out from her head in a chaotic spikey mess. She wears cobbled together armor made of leather and whatever metal bits she can find (scrap mail).

Quote: "Try and stop me!"

Roleplaying: Sia is arrogant, but tough enough that it's got some backing. She knows she is attractive and will use that to her advantage whenever possible.

Background: Sia grew up in a raider camp deep in the redwoods. As an adult, she struck out on her own and formed a roving raider gang. They found some success raiding caravans along the route of the old Highway 299, between Squatch-Ville and Yreka. Increased patrols along that route have forced her to be more cautious.

Key Info:

She has connections to other raider groups in the area.
She is losing the iron-fisted control over her gang because of strange occurrences (and even a few deaths) at their new camp.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 7: Mercy

 Now to come up with a male character from one of the remaining 2 Ruins. Mercy feels like something that McKinleyville sorely needs.

It does mean that I'm going to have to make some decisions about what happened there. There was a community there. It might have been a continuation of the current community that occupies the location or a community attempting to re-occupy the old site. Back in February, I suggested that it might be part of the story of the migration from Squatch-Ville to Ureka, but I'm not sure that makes sense with the development that Ureka has received since.

McKinleyville is home to the Eureka-Arcata Airport, which is the only significant airport in the area. Without significant air travel, it's very easy to imagine the community shrinking to insignificance. So our Failed Community tag comes from an attempted re-settlement at some point after the apocalypse.

And since we're thinking about NPCs, let's think about the person who might be the "face" of this Ruin. Not an original inhabitant, but someone new. Perhaps an archeologist or anthropologist of some sort. Since we are talking about a town with the largest airport, let's say that he came from the air. Perhaps the failed community also came from the air. They came from another surviving Enclave with an airport and our new "face" isn't just cataloging them for curiosity, but for closure.

They had come to resettle and rebuild the air travel networks that crisscrossed the country before the Collapse, but fell to some disease or other complication. So Delmos Jones (a name borrowed from a real Black anthropologist to make sure that my names and characters stay interesting and diverse) comes back a generation or two later to check up and finds everyone dead.

Name: Delmos Jones

Appearance: An older, solidly built Black man, balding with short tightly curled grey hair circling his head and a neat grey beard. His clothing is rugged, but neat and well-maintained.

Quote: "Let's see what we have here."

Roleplaying: His demeanor is serious, and more than a little sad. He is very empathetic, seeing each body as a person and seeking to understand their story through the evidence left behind. While no one is a stranger to violence in the post-apocalypse, this empathy causes him to prefer peaceful resolutions and to mourn anyone he is forced to kill.

Background: Delmos grew up in The ReDD (formerly Redding Regional Airport) and looked at the travel maps and brochures with awe. He has flown to other airports and communities throughout the state, learning everything he could. His flight to this airport should have been another renewed connection, but led to him discovering the site of a tragedy.

Key Info:

He is one of the few people from outside the area who live here.
He does have access to a small airplane and can provide aerial recon, supply drops and possibly transport.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 6: Reach

 Now we come to a female character and a Ruin that has previously been unexplored.

The prompt of Reach makes me think of the psychic overlords of Crescent City and their ability to project their minds over the city. But that mind is so diluted by controlling so many people that the populace is reduced to a zombie-like existence.

There is a temptation to put a face on one of the psychic overlords that dominate the minds of the populace, whether that's the overlord themselves or some sort of remote-controlled proxy. But that would require them to want to have some peaceable interaction with the outside world, which is not what Ruins do.

So perhaps an enemy of the overlords that might request assistance from an adventuring party, enabling missions into the Ruin.

Rebecca is a former zombie. As two overlords dueled over her consciousness, she broke free from both and regained her own faculties. She was likely born in Crescent City and may have had no conscious thought of her own for nearly her entire life. As soon as she could walk, she would shamble along with her mentally dominated parents.

Being freed meant that she had to figure out how to survive on her own without guidance or protection from an overlord. She stole from the supplies that the overlords use to keep their slaves fed. She hid in schools and libraries, since the overlords had no use for either. That's where she learned to read and chose her name.

She doesn't know if she is now immune to the control of the overlords or if they have simply forgotten about her. In either case, her goal is to stay off their radar as much as possible. If the overlords realize that their control can be broken, they will send wave after wave of mindless zombies after her.

Having spent many years reading to stave off her loneliness, Rebecca will take advantage of the opportunity to interact with other people and perhaps even seek romance. She is already smitten with someone within the Ruin, but I'm not sure if it's a zombie that she hopes to separate from their overlord, or perhaps a fellow freed zombie that she can only have remote interactions with while remaining out of the overlords' perceptions.

Name: Rebecca

Appearance: An unkempt young woman with stringy blonde hair. Her eyes are wide and move rapidly, taking in as much of her surroundings as possible.

Quote: "Let us not worry about the my-newt-ya."

Roleplaying: She is well read, but has had no one to really talk to. She is comfortable using large words, but is prone to mispronouncing them. Her manners are either nonexistent or grandiloquent, or some mix of both.

Background: She escaped from mental bondage by accident and has had to learn how to live her own life based on vague memories of her life under domination and books that she taught herself to read.

Key Info:

Rebecca knows Crescent City better than anyone and can guide you anywhere you need to go.
Rebecca wants human connection and will want to keep the party close to her.
Rebecca desires a person in the Ruin and will request help communicating with them (if a fellow former zombie) or freeing them (if a current zombie)

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 5: Burden

 Now to go someplace that we've never been before.

To create some sort of sequence for these, let's go by distance for Ureka, since that's more or less the focus of the campaign. The closest Ruin would be Calpoly, the former site of Arcata and California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt (though back when I lived in the area, it was Humboldt State University).

There are a couple of interesting tags that we rolled up for this one and I haven't really addressed them. The first is "Highshine Concentration." In the default setting of Ashes Without Number, Highshine is the secret sauce that means that radiation will give you cool mutations rather than just radiation sickness and cancer. While I'm not really using an established larger setting, it does let us have those Gamma World vibes even if everyplace else is a bit more Fallout.

The other tag is one that I haven't really addressed, but probably should. "Political Gulag." Someone is using the town as a prison. Since Ureka is the nearest Enclave, that suggests that they're the ones sending poor souls here, presumably to get eaten by the wild mutant plants and animals that roam the area.

With our prompt being Burden and the location being a place where mutations are common, let's assume that he has a mutation that makes him a burden. It's a bit extreme, but let's say that he has no arms and no legs. He can move and get around, and we could probably have fun by setting up encounters with him turning up in unlikely places, but I think the most common form of interaction would be him requesting a lift somewhere.

I do also want him to have some sort of attack power. This is partly to create a justification for how he's able to survive in such a dangerous environment with a distinct disability and partly to discourage players from being dicks and dismissing him outright or being overly ableist. It's a bit crude, but players are going to have more respect for anything that can cost them hit points, regardless of form.

He should also be connected to the Political Gulag Tag. He's was not born there, but exiled for some crime against Ureka, The easy one would be sympathy for Ratfolk, but we can also explore other aspects of Ureka by supposing that he was an opponent to some aspect of the Victorian Reconstructionism embraced by the rest of the community. A fun mirror to modern times might have him be an environmental activist against reconstructed timber barons.

That also suggests our name: Hillard Hurwitz. "Hillard" as a nod to Julia "Butterfly" Hill, an activist who spent a year in a tree. Hurwitz is for Charles Hurwitz, owner of Maxxam, the private equity company that bled Pacific Lumber Company dry. The idea of a descendant trying to make right has a certain appeal.

Name: Hillard "Stumpy" Hurwitz

Appearance: A man with no arms and no legs, clean shaven (somehow) but with long, lanky, dark hair.

Quote: "How about a lift?"

Roleplaying: Stumpy is a stereotypical hippy in many ways. He is very "go with the flow" and sympathetic to the balance of nature. He is casually optimistic and avoids getting overly bummed out if possible. He's spent a long time learning about the strange ecology that has developed around Calpoly and has a deep respect for it.

Background: After staging protests over excessive logging by the Timber Barons of Ureka, Hillard was exiled to Calpoly. While there, he suffered significant injuries to his arms and legs. The mutating elements in the environment granted him a healing power that closed the wounds quickly, but did not restore the limbs. It also granted him thermokinesis which he can use to defend himself.

Key Info:

He is surprisingly capable and well adapted to his current status.
He will often be found requesting a lift to a destination
He understands the ecology of the monsters roaming Calpoly, but it opposed to their casual destruction or exploitation.

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 4: Charm

 Now we come to the Ruins. The first Ruin on my list is the Eureka Ruins. I might come up with an alternate name for the area, but for now, let's focus on our NPC.

We know this character is female, likely a Ratfolk, and our prompt is Charm. As this is early days, this will be some sort of "face" character that adventurers would likely be dealing with.

Let's say that she represents the Rat King. Is she a simple emissary? Nah. That would be boring. She's a Second Foundationer.

To back up a little bit, the Rat King that rules over the Ruins of Eureka is a collective consciousness made up of several ratfolk linked by their tails. Presumably, this makes them (singular or collective "they" is the correct pronoun for the situation) super-intelligent, so we can imagine that they have some sort of predictive power along the lines of psychohistory from Isaac Asimov's Foundation stories.

But in the stories, psychohistory wasn't perfect. While the Foundation was the public face of the Seldon Plan, there was the Second Foundation that had agents that took action behind the scenes to ensure that the Seldon Plan was fulfilled.

So let's assume that our "charmer" is one of these agents. Her job is to gather information to help the Rat King make better plans, but also acting to subtly influence the other players on the board to ultimately advantage the Ratfolk. So she could turn up in a lot of adventuresome locales.

Again, we have a challenge for a name. I don't think that Ratfolk speak English amongst themselves. It's probably a squeaking and chittering language, so we've got another "use name" situation. Let's call her Scarlett. We could come up with an in-universe justification for this, like red fur, but really, it's a reference to Scarlett Johansen who played the Black Widow in the MCU.

Name: Scarlett

Appearance: A female ratfolk with reddish brown fur, Among the ruins, she wears minimal clothing, mostly belts, harnesses and holsters for small weapons and other tools. In Ureka, she wears a loose, light dress as a ratfolk housemaid might wear, with the harnesses and holsters underneath it. Her tail has a few fleshy growths along its length, signs of healed injuries

Quote: "You don't have to do that."

Roleplaying: Scarlett is a manipulator. She prefers to talk rather than fight her way out of tight situations. She appears as non-threatening as possible as a way of getting access to surprising places. She doesn't always understand her missions, but she has faith that they will lead to greater success for the Rat King and her people.

Background: Scarlett is an agent of the Rat King and acts to fulfill their long-term plans.

Key Info:

She is a wild card, possibly aligned or opposed to the party, depending on her missions
She doesn't always understand what her mission is supposed to accomplish

Stat Block:

RPGaDay 2026 Day 3: Poise

Now it's time for an NPC for the last Enclave, Cow Town. And keeping with the gender pattern established, this character is male.

Someone with poise feels very strange in Cow Town. It feels like a community driven to extremes. Everyone is sick. Everyone is hungry. Everyone is despairing.

So what we'd be looking for is someone trying to keep the extremes in check. Maybe a spiritual leader of some kind. Which does bring up the subject of religion.

Most Americans, I think, assume that "religion" and "Christianity" are the same thing, unless it is specifically called out. So I could easily call him "Father" or "Reverend" and be done with it. Assume the major religious doctrines are in the general "be a good person" mode.

Post-apocalyptic settings give us an opportunity to explore other possibilities. Cultural relics could be given religious significance. The apocalypse itself could be a source of revelation.

But for Cow Town, I think there's a lot of inertia. They've been a farming community for quite some time, even before the apocalypse. The only thing that really changed for them was the customer. They no longer had to provide Costco with ice cream and other dairy products. Local production for local needs became the priority.

Likewise, the local churches became separated from their larger ecumenical organizations and became focused on local needs.

I think the radiation infusion occurred within the last generation or so. Long enough ago that people have largely accepted that this is the way things are now, but no so long ago that the conditions have managed to kill everyone or drive them away.

So our priest could possibly be old enough to remember the time before that and use that as an anchor for his faith.

There are two Lutheran churches in modern-day Ferndale, so I feel comfortable drawing on my own Lutheran upbringing, along with the common trappings of Christianity that we all know from movies and TV even if we don't participate in them, to get a picture of this church.

I'll also draw on my own history for a name. This is Pastor Dave. And remembering Pastor Dave helps me fill in a few pieces. But this is an imperfect mirror of the Pastor Dave of my childhood, with a few layers of tragedy on top.

Name: Pastor Dave

Appearance: A balding man in his late 40s. The hair that remains on the sides of his head, as well as his thick mustache, is light brown turning to grey. His once-rounded face gives way to sunken eyes and cheeks.

Quote: "I'm scared, too."

Roleplaying: Pastor Dave is warm and empathetic. His voice is warm and deep (Nick Offerman is probably the closest, but imagine a situation where Ron Swanson was the evil twin. Pastor Dave would be the good twin,) He listens and he understands.

Background: Pastor Dave grew up in Cow Town and took over caring for the congregation from his father, Paster George. He had hoped one day to pass the position to his own son, Seth, but the radiation came and took Seth. Pastor Dave has since dedicated himself to making sure that no other parent should suffer as he has. This dedication has become so strong that he has reached out to nearby raider gangs for aid.

Key Info:

He is dedicated to peaceful resolution whenever possible
He has connections to local settlers and even raiders

Stat Block: