Lark (AW2E)
Contents
Lark, the Hocus[edit]
"My father once told me a story from the time before 'bout a man called Gracchus. He was a wise man, and he saw that the people were in need, and he took land from those that had much land and he gave it to those that had none. For this, the wealthy and the powerful raised their hands against him and they slew him dead. But Gracchus lived on after death, and he took the land again and he returned it to the people. And he was mighty, for the Gods had touched him and forbade anyone to lay hands on him. And he gave food to the hungry. And when that was done, and the people had land to tend and food in their bellies, he gave the Law to the people, to protect them from the wealthy. And at this the wealthy could not contain their wrath, and though the Gods forbade it, they seized him and slew him. And for this, the Gods punished the wealthy, and for their sins the Gods laid them low.
Now in my youth I was a slave like some of you here were. And though I did not toil in the fields I still felt the hatred and the fear that the wealthy bear for the people. And I told my brothers and sisters about Gracchus, and we all agreed that if the Gods had raised him once before they might raise him again. And we took hope. We made our escape, we followed the signs the Gods gave us, and we came here. Here, where there is a man who gives water to the people, so that none may thirst; who gives the Law to the people, so that they are protected; who lays hands on the people, that they shall be healed; and who says that no one shall be ruled by another, and that all of the people shall be free. And we told ourselves that surely this man must be Gracchus. And though he does not answer to that name, still that is what we must believe. And this too we know. The wealthy and the powerful have always hated the people and they will not abide those who guide and protect them. And so we must watch him and ward him, that he shall come to no harm, for even now the wicked do not fear the Gods".
Stats[edit]
- Cool 0
- Hard+1
- Hot-1
- Sharp+1
- Weird+2
Look[edit]
Man, tattered Vestments, determined face, clear eyes, fat body
Moves[edit]
- Fortunes
- Frenzy (speak truth to mob)
- Charismatic (roll Weird for manipulate)
Gear[edit]
Lark wears faded orange pants and a short sleeved shirt. Birds in flight are drawn on them in crude charcoal. Around his neck he wears a chain with a broken fetter attached.
He has oddments worth 4 barter.
Followers[edit]
Lark is the Voice of Gracchus, and his followers are his cult. The hard core is those who escaped from slavery with Lark, but there are others among the Guardians who have joined later. Most of them are former slaves or people who have been healed by Chalice. The Guardians are tightly-knit, and will help each other in need. Lark is respected for his charisma, but while he leads the cult's worship, he is not the focus of it. Furthermore, the Guardians strongly believe that no one should rule another - if it was believed that Lark was acting for his own interests instead of the interests of the group, he would face their wrath.
If Lark travels, they congregate in their own communities.
Lark's followers are rigorous and argumentative. They are hard-working, no-nonsense. They are not really his, more like he's theirs. They disdain fashion, luxury and convention.
- Around 20 followers
- Fortune +1
- Surplus: 2-barter, insight
- Want: judgment, disease
History[edit]
- Jones: Lark has seen his soul (Hx+3)
- Blues:
- Chalice:
- Errol:
- Kray:
Questions and answers[edit]
The MC asked: Who did you leave behind when you escaped?
"More than one, that's for sure. There was Frog, for instance. He used to work in the gangs in the fields, pulling down trees and shit like all the rest of them. That's right, pulling trees. You leave land alone a few years, don't put your cattle on it, and trees will just spring up out of nowhere. Most of the time, when you're clearing new land, you just set a fire, but maybe you don't want to do that if the field is near your house. So you gotta get rid of them somehow, and cutting it down means either doing the work yourself or giving a slave an axe. The safer, more effective, move is to give them rope. A strong rope and enough bodies and you can pull the trees right out by the roots. So anyway, Frog sweated and killed himself with the rest of them. Then one day, they gave him a stick and a new job. His job was to decide who needed punishing, and beat them for it. And even though he woire the same fucking slave orange as the rest of us, once he had that stick in his hand he beat us like he was a free man. Harder, even, because a free man is less afraid than old Frog was. So there was no fucking way I could tell Frog anything. One, he would have turned us in, and two, none of us ever wanted to see him again, not living at any rate.
So that was Frog. Frankie was a new guy. He was taken about a week or two before we broke out, and in his head he thought he was a free man, just one that was down on his luck. Any day his friends were going to show up and get him free. We could have taken the chance, but...Frog acted friendly with him. And Frankie played along. Well, of course he did, wouldn't anyone, but it meant he had no friends, and we didn't know if we could include him - he might think he could turn us in and be rewarded with his freedom or some shit like that.
Cullen was all set to go, and the morning we were going to run he mouthed off to a guard and had the shit beaten out of him. They chained him up, and he couldn't have walked any distance anyway even if we could get him out of them. There was no way we could bring him with us without calling the whole thing off and waiting months for him to get better, if he got better.
Kite was a different story. She didn't pick a fight with a guard, she picked a fight with Ruth. Every single fucking chance she got. We knew we couldn't include them both, it would be a disaster, and if we were going to pick anyone over Ruth, it sure wouldn't be Kite.
June was the boss's favourite woman. She was nice enough, but she was under the boss's eye the whole time. I worked in the house, so I sometimes had the chance to talk to her, but if she heard any of the hints I dropped, she never gave a sign. And I couldn't just say it straight out - anyone could have heard.
There were others. People we didn't know, people we knew but didn't trust or couldn't get along with, people that were watched the whole time, people that couldn't fucking make it".
Blues asked: Which one of you once stood up to me, gang and all?
Lark did. Shortly after the Guardians arrived in the city, there was trouble between them and your gang. You don't know how it got started, but by the time you saw it, it was too late for anything but fighting, and if your gang is fighting you'd better be there fighting with them. And then Lark showed up, a soft fat man who looked like nothing - didn't even pack, and told everyone there exactly how stupid they were being, how if they fought no one would win, how even the winners would end up cut off. And somehow he made everyone listen.
Jones asked: One of you quite evidently dislikes and distrusts me.
Having seen Jones's soul, Lark knows better than to trust him.
