Welcome back to #mothershipmonth. Every week day this month I’m producing part of a supplement for Mothership, set on Callaway Falls, an abandoned (mostly…) luxury resort turned mining colony. Last week we looked at the history of the world. This week we’re looking at the Callaway Five, the members of the board who have scattered to the winds, trying to work out why the planet they stole has been stolen from them. Each day we’ll look at one of the board, including background, roleplaying notes and plot hooks. I use the Story Engine card system a lot and the prompt that built their back stories are included next to their names. In addition, click through on their names for a fully statted character sheet.
Today, we’re meeting Ashe Kayinga. Lawyer, genius, problem solver and very, very worried human. Because Ashe has been told they have a destiny and they really don’t know how they feel about that.
Ashe Kayinga (Spent their childhood trapped in/and now it is getting them inducted into an inner circle)
Ashe Kayinga is what a monk would look like if a monk knew a lot about planetary mining law. Ashe grew up in the legal cloisters of Zurichville, steeped in their profession. They aren’t instinctively brilliant but they dance with the law with the sort of graceful pragmatism others dream of.
They hated it for years. They wanted to be a chef, a fireman, a professional martial artist, a pilot, anything. But their scores always took them back to the law. They made their peace with it. Because what other choice did they have?
Not long before Callaway Reef fell, Ashe was contacted by their old tutors and invited back to Zurichville. They were told the truth; they’d been chosen by a secret group of cross company lawyers to join them. These were the people who made the law that made the law, the shadow court that kept the world running.
One week before it all came crashing down, they contacted Ashe and gave them coordinates, a patent number and a single word message: Run. Ashe was prepping to do that when Faridah Rashid came to them for advice. The pair fled together, hoping for answers, and a way back to their lives.
Roleplaying Notes: Think Munya Chawawa in basically anything or Abraham Popoola in, again, basically anything.
Plot Hooks:
Hole in the World
On the dark side of Callaway Reef, there is a three mile deep, two hundred mile gash. It wasn’t there two weeks ago. The players are contacted by Ashe and Faridah to protect them as they go into the mine. But where did the Helium 3 go? Who took it? As they enter the mines, they discover this crime is very much in progress and they’ve just walked into an active crime scene.
Discovery Phase
A patent number, a fissile isotope, massive weather disruption. Something tore a chunk out of Callaway Reef and Ashe Kayinga is increasingly convinced they know what it is. Ashe needs the players to do three things: track down the patent, identify and trace the isotope and discover what’s causing the weather disruption. To do so they’ll need to deal with enraged local wildlife, Bradda Geologic and damage Callaway Reef may never recover from.
Entrance Exam
Ashe Kayinga’s sponsors have given them everything they need to solve the puzzle of Callaway Reef, including the players. With Bradda Geologic closing in, the players must protect Ashe as they head to the deepest part of the mine to discover the truth and then transmit it off world.
Legal Precedent
Xavier comes clean to Ashe about still being alive, and asks for help with getting his fathers formally recognised as humans again. Ashe in turn reaches out to the players, who must work as their ‘investigators’ talking to Sophie Kensington, Xavier’s relatives and Xavier’s fathers to help put together the case. But Bradda Geologic don’t want the case to succeed and have sent a crew of assassins to wipe out all trace of the origins of the Carter Competent.