DANCERS IN THE STATE LINE SWING

The player characters are the only fae inhabitants of Cumberland Gap itself, although the Crossroads Hotel and associated freehold is the only freehold between Virginia and Knoxville, and so rural fae will often come through, as well as the usual regular travellers...

CHANGELINGS

BOGGANS

Senator Andy Valentine

This little grey-haired grump boggan has a fondness for waistcoats, big meals, and tall tales. He's been at the Parliament of Dreams representing the Interests "since you was so high!" Exactly what Interests these are are not quite clear to you at the moment. As he always debarks for New York City via Crossroads, he has a special affection for the place and often speaks highly of it to others. Knowledgable, agreeable and shrewd, he's been a fixture at the Parliament of Dreams so long that he has excellent contacts and influence with Kithain throughout Concordia. A few dark whispers about his treasonous speeches against the High King during the Accordance War linger with him, though.

NOCKERS

"We know of an ancient radiation
That haunts dismembered constellations
A faintly glimmering radio station
While Frank Sinatra sings 'Stormy Weather'
The flies and spiders get along together..." --- Cake, "Frank Sinatra"

Junkyard Logan - Unseelie scumbag

He's thick-shouldered, tough as nails, and runs the junkyard out on Highway 25 and a ripoff tow truck service. An Unseelie scumbag, his back porch opens into a chimerical grimy biker bar with no name, where brawls and more serious crimes are common. Although he calls the Crossroads "competition", basically he hates the guts of the place.

POOKAE

"I'm addicted to stress
that's the way that I get things done
If I'm not under pressure then I sleep too long
and I hang around like a bum
I think I'm going nowhere
and that makes me nervous
Everybody's out to get me but I feel allright.
Everybody's out to get me but I feel allright.
Everybody's out to get me but I feel allright.
Everybody's thinkin' 'bout me." --- Jim's Big Ego, "Stress"

Albert Sidney Johnston Sidney - troublemaker

"Sid-Sid", as he hates to be called, is a hyperactive con artist always a few steps ahead of the police. Implicated, although never charged, in a dozen land swindles, he always seems to have enough money and spare time to sow chaos and mischief across the Kingdom of Willows. Naturally, the Crossroads is a good way to make a quick getaway, or to pick up information about his targets - or victims!

ESHU

"Maybe I'm just a clown throwing down
Looking to come up busted
I'm a thief in the house of love
And I can't be trusted.
Well I'll be making my heist
With just another roll of the dice." --- Bruce Springsteen, "Roll of the Dice"

Billy Wands - Dowser

An itinerant dowser who travels around the three-state area finding locations for digging wells. He's even been hired by some of the small townships nearby. Low on funds and usually hitchhiking, Billy gets around and hears a lot of stories, and for him, that's what it's all about.

REDCAPS

"See the moon roll across the stars
See the seasons turn like a heart
Your father's days are lost to you.
This is your time here to do what you will do.
Your life is now.
Your life is now.
Your life is now.
In this undiscovered moment, lift your head up above the crowd.
We could shake this world if you would only show us how.
Your life is now." --- John Mellencamp, "Your Life Is Now"

Shivers the Daggerwielder - horrible little disgusting monster

Shivers is about eight years old, a repeat runaway who stabbed the eyes out of his mother and has terrorized foster families across the state. Currently, he is skulking around the Cumberland Gap area, sneaking into children's bedrooms at night to bite the heads off their pets, carve bloody sigils into the walls (or their skins), and suck the screams out of their bodies. Charming little tyke. Possessor of a treasured chimerical shiv which allegedly whispers mischief to him.

SATYRS

"The birds and the bees
Are singing for me
And this is the song I heard them singing
Twee lee dee lee dee
But I never heard a word they're tellin' me...
And when Columbus sailed
Upon that mighty sea
Yes, we are just like him
Yes, we are pioneers.
Into the great unknown
The wild uncharted lands.
There ain't no turning back.
Ain't gonna be no chains on me.
HIT IT!" --- David Byrne, "Now I'm Your Mom"

Sir Hank Eleven - trucker knight

Sir Hank is a soft-spoken, good-looking trucker who hauls goods through the mountains and always stops at the Crossroads. He took his name from U.S. 11 and from Hank Williams, who lost his life on that road. With a sweetheart in every town, he has been knighted because of his unstinting dedication to searching the Duchy for news - and fugitives.

Suzy Ziederman - club girl

She's in a New Orleans pop hip hop band and plays synthesizers, but what she's best known for is party-crashing. For some reason nobody much seems to mind. Hm. Maybe it's the hair. She always seems to be short of mundane cash and occasionally strung out on one drug or another.

SIDHE

His Grace, Duke Elton Jefferson - Ruler Of the Duchy of Twin Valleys

Duke Jefferson, appointed to his position by High King David for valor in fending off an Unseelie attempt to conquer a royal freehold, is an ancient, wise-eyed fifteen year old African-American sidhe. He has his parents (they are mortals) thoroughly cowed and can do more or less whatever he wants, which makes his "keeper", the Ducal Chamberlain, the troll Ruby Remo, pull out her pale blond hair with frustration.

Her Grace, Duchess Dianan Pale - Ruler of the Duchy of Appalachia

Having ascended to her position by appointment of the departing previous duke, Dianan is an almost preternaturally hard-working and determined ruler. Although Crossroads sits - naturally - right on the border of Duchess Dianan's realm, it's definitely something she's aware of, and visitors from her realm often pass through Crossroads on their way somewhere else. Also remarkable is her ability to hang onto her mortal passion - the writing of paperback Western novels.

King Meilge, Ruler of Willows

Meilge was horribly scarred in the Accordance War (by torture? imprisonment? who knows?) and wears a Carnival mask to hide it. Vain, but modernist, Meilge has a broad support among nobles and "loyal" commoners. Unfortunately, he is given to fits of paranoia in which he imposes draconian rulings upon his desmene, and is not popular at the High Court.

Meilge's chief freehold, at the Heart of Willows, is a towering modernist castle half of steel and glass, half of stone and parapet, in the midst of downtown Atlanta, Georgia. His chief holding in the Duchy of Two Valleys is the aforementioned Castle of Smoke, deep in the forest.

SLUAGH

"Temerity" (real name Annie Johnson) - whiny little nobody

She's thirteen, she wants to be a goth, and she doesn't fit in at whitebread Cumberland Junior High. Basically a misfit who nobody likes. At least other fae understand a little of what she's going through.

TROLLS

"I too, haughty Shade, also sing war, and a longer and greater one than any,
Waged in my book with varying fortune, with flight, advance and retreat, victory deferr'd and wavering,
(Yet methinks certain, or as good as certain, at the last,) the field the world,
For life and death, for the Body and for the eternal Soul,
Lo, I too am come, chanting the chant of battles,
I above all promote brave soldiers." --- Walt Whitman

Amos Finlay - Former Reeve

Amos, someone who didn't seem to have any qualifications at all for running the Crossroads, was selected by Duke Eltan to oversee the Crossroads during the years between Baron Alastair's death and Deirdre's mortal coming-of-age which would allow her to take possession of the place. Potentially, the only qualification he had was an aggressive stubbornness and irascibility which could face down most. Only the most dedicated could stand up to him. He moved back to Memphis gladly when Deirdre came down, saying not a word in farewell, merely snorting derisively and muttering under his breath.

Ruby Remo - Ducal Guardian

She's a humongous blonde woman who carries a sword as tall as most of the player characters, and is more protective of Duke Eltan than his mother is. She fought on the side of the sidhe in the Accordance War and was knighted as a result. Her current position as assistant to and guardian of Duke Eltan takes up much of her time and makes her mortal life hard to keep tabs on. Those in the know worry a little about her sanity. Because of her focus on Changeling matters, despite her mortal age, she is a wilder.

Johnny Stafford - War Teacher

This Knoxville-resident troll is a substitute teacher for area middle schools, but spends most of his time training his fledges at the Redoubt. He was recruited by Carver for the hunt of the creature called the Meerkra.

CHIMERA

Yggy - tentacular protector

Nobody can remember seeing the greyish brackish tentacle(s?) in the pool out in front of the Crossroads Hold before Deirdre arrived, but surely they (?) must have been there before. Up to twenty feet in length, but still able to fit cheerfully in Dara's bucket, the tentacle she has named Yggy has taken it upon itself to protect her and the hold.

Beaumont - monocled doggie

Beaumont has been with the Crossroads Hold for years. He served with Baron Davenrow before his death, and perhaps because his incredible diplomatic skills are most put to the test by nockers, he has attached himself to Carver. Or maybe it's just because Carver lets him ride in the front seat of his pickup truck with his head out the window. He wears a tie and waistcoat and a monocle which pops out comically when he's surprised.

Beaumont is an exceptionally powerful chimera, who has been reconstituted in several forms across the centuries of time. His origin is unknown, and he has forgotten more about Changeling life than many of the greatest sages will ever know.

Pandemonium - cooperative firelizard

A perfect match for Merry's mischevious personality, Pandemonium (or Pan, as she calls him) has been with her since her Chrysalis, a willing partner to her playfulness, a comfort when the real world comes pressing in too much, and, as Pan is always eager to point out, it's fun having a friend who can fly.

The Meerkra - Mysterious Monster

Merry's the only one that got sight of this horrible beastie at first, but the group is hunted it down before it caused more chimerical deaths, but not before it had some effect on a natural bale-spring deep in the mountains...

MORTALS

Saul Degan - NYC Kinain - Queen Mab's Bureaucrat

A pooka Kinain befriended by Lady Sable in one of her sojourns to New York City, he is a minor bureaucrat in the New York City Department of Public Works who delights in organizing parties and foulups across the city. The Queen of the Kingdom of Apples, Mab, a sidhe, relies on Degan to make sure that Central Park is available for the Spring Hunt and that deep sluagh high teas are not interrupted by sewer workers.

Missy Molloy, aka "Madame La Touri" - New Orleans Kinain - Tour Bus Driver and Home Delivery I Ching Interpreter

A Kinain (Kith relation not known) who drives a tour bus in New Orleans and has the only home delivery I Ching interpretation service in the world. She was befriended by Lady Sable on her trip to New Orleans and (when enchanted) keeps a sharp eye out for Kithain activity, making her an important source of information. In addition, her fortune-telling activities bring her into the homes of some of New Orleans' most influential citizens to consult with them on matters dear to their hearts. Always she is willing (often she is able) to pick up travellers who exit the New Orleans trod early and ferry them back to the city.

Hortensia and Shazira, housekeepers

Hortensia is from Cuba. Shazira is from Jackson, Mississippi. They are the two housekeepers for the Crossroads Hotel. They are completely mortal, and live in a small set of rooms back behind the kitchen.

Nero, short order cook and Brian, waiter

Nero comes to Crossroads for the breakfast rush, leaves for lunch (cold sandwiches and soup are the lunch menu), and returns for dinner. Brian is a night student at Middlesboro Community College who works most of the day at Crossroads. They work year-round at Crossroads and are supplemented in the spring and summer by another waiter and expanded hours for Nero.

John Keems, manager of the Crossroads

John, an old friend of Alastair, but completely mortal, is the manager of the Crossroads Hotel. He's good-naturedly exasperated by Deirdre and her strange friends. He has been enchanted quite a lot across his life, with the result that when enchanted, most of his memory of previous enchantments returns in full.

Delia Hays, Mayor of Cumberland Gap

Hays, who runs a touristy boutique near the freeway, has been Mayor of Cumberland Gap for several years now. She is a little bit enamored of the "Old Tyme" style of colonial stores, with the result that Cumberland Gap is a bit overstocked with them (the "Old Tyme Computer Shoppe" is the worst offendor), but is good-natured and easy to get along with. When Davenrow died and Lady Sable had to deal with the Sheriff's office a lot, Hays was there to help out, organizing citizens into search parties to look for clues with the Sheriff's deputies and sitting up at the Hotel helping out and comforting those that had been Davenrow's friends. They've been friends ever since.

HUNTERS

"I walk the maze of moments
But everywhere I turn to
Begins a new beginning
But never finds a finish
I walk to the horizon
And there I find another
It all seems so surprising
And then I find that I know.
You go there, you're gone forever
I go there, I lose my way.
If we stay here, we're not together.
Anywhere is." --- Enya, "Anywhere Is"

Byron Delehanty - Arcanum retiree

As a result of a heedless curse cast by a sorcerer in New York city to send the troublesome Delehanty to the "end of the road", one of the Arcanum's top investigators selected as his retirement home the Cumberland Gap. Delehanty, 62, is not considered hostile (indeed, his Banality is lower than average), his society has searched for evidence of the fae for over a century and he is considered dangerously open-minded, because if he does find something, he will believe, record and pass it along. He's cheerfully working on a book about the ghost stories of Cumberland Mountain and so unfortunately can be found poking around mysterious events.

Paul Kellogg - New York City Arcanist

Although the Arcanum has always been the most significant group of mortals threatening the exposure of Changeling society, Changelings know very little about it. Indeed, Kellogg, a former protege of Delehanty, is the only member of the Arcanum known through most of Eastern America. He's a former stockbroker with a fairly fat bank account and an early retirement, and lives in a renovated Queens rowhouse.
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