Friday, August 7, 2026

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:

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