It's mid-November in Glasgow. The lights are up, but nobody sings Slade yet. It's fucking freezing, but no snow for the weans yet. Santa's more than a month away. The city is lying in wait for Christmas, a thick tension wrapping everyone in blankets as they trudge along Sauchiehall Street. Everything is calm. People patiently wait for the next fifteen days to pass and do a spot of present shopping. Everything's in place for a Glaswegian Christmas.
Nobody is aware that every year at this time, the city is vulnerable. Glasgow's a tough place to break, normally. If you try anything, the polis - or a drunkard - will almost certainly catch you. Even during Christmas, there's such fight in the air over that last remote control car at Hamley's that everyone's on edge, ready to strike. It's during this little gap, however - when everyone is waiting for one thing - that Roderick Kilkenny knows he has to strike, if he is going to get his revenge.
Back in September, Roderick discovered a mysterious red box that looked as if it could once have been part of a vault. He heard wails from inside it when he picked it up and was intrigued enough to carry it with him for the next few days. Every time he went near someone with it, they were irrevocably repelled as if by a soundless gust of wind. It must have been terrifying, whatever was in there, and Roderick couldn't wait to open it. He just couldn't figure out how.
Then he'd met Paddy Cooper. Paddy had known exactly what it was, and what it could do. He'd been a scientist. He'd explained to Roderick that inside were hordes of angered ghosts and that if they ever let them out, the city would be in jeopardy. Roderick had grumbled but agreed reluctantly because Paddy was so passionate about it.
Then came the lay off.
A Clyde shipyard, flooded with immigrants from all shores. What was the point in keeping Scots employed when you could pay immigrants half? And so Roderick, along with thirteen other unskilled labourers, was displaced onto the unemployment line. The trade unions were furious, of course, but their measly little protests weren't enough for Roderick.
One night, he took the box out to the shipyard and laid it on the ground. There was no way the foreigner scum would know what it was. They would open it and would be destroyed. He almost didn't care about getting his job back. He just wanted to see them suffer.
But it didn't work. Paddy had followed him and retrieved the box before it could cause any harm. He caught up with Roderick just outside Buchanan Galleries and proclaimed that he was taking the box away. Roderick swung at Paddy and soon they were brawling like some real Glesgae alkies. Amidst the punches and occasional headbutts, Paddy landed on the box and it skidded away, right to the edge of a flight of stairs.
Paddy struggled to his feet and launched himself at it. He clutched it to his chest and made sure the lock was okay. However, he was crouching right on the edge of the stairs and as soon as Roderick reached him, he kicked both Paddy and the box as hard as he could until they were tumbling unstoppably down the stone steps towards H&M.
Paddy landed hard, but the box landed harder. It shattered. Swirls of colour exploded outwards and coalesced into a massive beam of white light. It shot up the steps and swirled around Roderic. A chanting emanated from somewhere within. He whimpered and begged them to leave him alone, that it was an accident. Then he realised what they were chanting.
"Master! Master! Master!"
The ghosts were under his control.
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Now it is November, and the city is weak.
Paddy Cooper has formed his defence team. He knows the target will be mostly immigrant groups so he has recruited mostly immigrants. If he can spread the warning around their tight-knit communities, maybe some will have sense enough to migrate somewhere else for the time being. He's also recruited a number of Scots to deter Roderick from attacking them all. He hates foreigners, sure, but does he hate them enough to risk the collateral damage of his own kinsmen?
Paddy knows the attacks will come soon. He can feel it. He looks at his calendar every morning and wonders how long left he has to train his Ghostbusters.
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Character slots:
Both Paddy and Roderick will be NPCs.
You are a Ghostbuster, defending the city from the ghosts that will soon start to terrorise it.
I will put a link for a character creation WriterFeed Pad in the DT (when I figure out how to link it).
Gender:
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