Liberal women-smugglers and well-intentioned thugs…

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The so-called “Abortion Railroad” is a smuggling operation. Specifically, they transport pregnant girls and women from States with restrictive abortion laws to places where they can have their problems fixed. For those too far along to have a legal abortion, the Railroad also has abortionists who arrange for after-hours use of local medical facilities. It’s not uncommon for individual cells to help move girls in other kinds of trouble as well.

Most of those helped by the network are willing to return the favor when the call comes in. These contacts form a very loose network of discrete safe-houses that can escort a girl from any bus stop in the South to any abortion clinic in the North-East and back. They only move women, and are very passionate about their duty.

There are a several hundred members in the Railroad, but most just offer safe-houses for girls on the run. A few cadres are far more committed. A number of abusive boyfriends have disappeared after chasing a girl taken into the Railroad’s care. One cell of vigilante zealots has raided three relatively small forced-prostitution operations and freed more than 20 enslaved girls. Between the brothel raids and mob-connected competition for street abortions, it’s not uncommon for the Railroad to help its own members disappear for a while.

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Sandra Martin

In the days before the Supreme Court decided Abortion should be legal, 13-year old Sandra didn’t was in a tough spot. She didn’t want to admit to being raped. She didn’t want to tell her parents why she was getting fat. Instead, she ran away, and when the baby came, she ran away again. It wasn’t a big town. When a dead newborn showed up at the dump a month after a girl disappeared, the cops knew who it came from. And they were waiting for Sandra when she finally came home.

When she got out of kiddie-prison, Sandra went to a State college, and then some Central American medical program before becoming a nurse in her native Louisiana. Given the local attitudes toward abortion, it wasn’t long before she called up some old friends and started the Railroad. Now in her mid 40s, Sandra is the most senior nurse at a New Orleans clinic. Her employer fully supports her extracurricular activities and turns a blind eye to the resulting absences and falsified time sheets. This arrangement gives her a free hand to work “in the field,” helping out girls who change their minds in the 8th month.

Members of Sandra’s local cell have traveled across State lines to assist in all three of the organization’s recent brothel raids.

Sandra, Back-Alley Abortionist

Personality: A magnetic mix of righteousness, regret, and compassion.
Obsession: Helping troubled girls.
Wound Points: 45

Passions

Rage Stimulus: People trying to repress women’s rights, or interfering in her work.
Fear Stimulus: (Helplessness) Being raped.
Noble Stimulus: Girls in distress.

Stats

Body: 50 (Womanly)
Speed: 50 (Coordinated)
Mind: 75 (Sharp)
Soul: 65 (Charismatic)

Skills

Body Skills: Athletics 30%, Struggle 30%, Eye-Catching 15%
Speed Skills: Drive 30%, Dodge 40%, Initiative 32%, Shoot first 33%
Mind Skills: Womyn’s Studies (Education) 40%, Strategic Analysis 15%, Conceal 20%, Notice 25%, Medicine 40%, Speak Spanish 15%
Soul Skills: Charm 40%, Lie 30%, Charismatic Leader 15%, Pillar: Abortion Activists 40%

Strategic Analysis: Working things out ahead of time. This skill applies when Sandra has sufficient time and accurate information to plan an action or series of actions. If she’s successful, she spots any holes in a plan. If the roll is a match, the plan goes off without undue complications. This doesn’t mean it automatically succeeds – a shootout must still be played out, but the cops don’t show up unexpectedly. If the roll is a Crit, each person in on the plan can also flip-flop a roll during the action. This skill doesn’t help with problems she is unaware of. Sandra’s low skill rating doesn’t help her plan too well on the seat of her pants, but she’s a very smart girl and she can come up with a killer strategy in less stressful situations.

Pillar: Abortion Activists is Sandra’s “Reputation” skill. She is directly known to everyone actively in the “underground railroad.” Beyond that, she is known by reputation in abortion clinics, and pro-choice activist circles. Since the activists often overlap with other informal networks for troubled girls, similar organizations for abused children have a chance of knowing who she is. Obsessive anti-abortion activists might also be aware of her activities.

Madness Meters

Violence: 3 hard / 1 failed
Unnatural: 1 hard / 0 failed
Helplessness: 3 hard / 1 failed
Isolation: 1 hard / 1 failed
Self: 1 hard / 0 failed

Possessions: Large sunglasses, scarf, PBS tote bag, two .357 revolvers (50).

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Michelle Roberts

Michelle is a lily-white Louisiana girl in her early twenties. She comes from a family of New Agers; her mother is a professional midwife. She moved to New York at 17 to study at NYU, but dropped out after getting knocked up during her first semester. The entire family was crushed when the baby died of SIDS, but Michelle fell to pieces. She was acting so strangely that the police placed her under observation. That was how Michelle found out she was pregnant again. It didn’t take long for the cops to figure out there was no foul play involved, but the once-and-future-mother slipped over the edge for a couple of weeks before the counselors managed to bring her back to a relatively stable state of mind.

With her mind roughly re-hinged, Michelle had an abortion and asked for a part-time receptionist position at the clinic where she had the procedure. In addition to becoming an activist and member of the Abortion Railroad, the young woman has also come to understand pregnancy as a mystical state. Michelle usually aborts after the first trimester, when it’s still legal. Her personal variation of Maternamancy allows her to build Minor charges relatively easily (provided she has a partner), but she uses most of them to make Artifacts, which she has been known to sell to the Occult Underground to supplement her income and family checks.

She has a few New Age groupies in her circle of friends, but is also familiar with most of New York’s dilapidated Occult Underground. Guests from the Railroad come in sporadically, and with little advance notice, but Michelle is always happy to play host and make arrangements for them at the clinic. In fact, she’s the most consistent and active supporter in the New York area.

Michelle, safe house operator and small-time witch

Personality: (Cancer) Warm, welcoming, and extremely spiritual. She’s quick with a glass of sweet tea, and always willing to share her apartment with a female guest. When she’s flirting, Michelle plays the innocent Southern Belle.
Obsession: (Maternamancy) Gestation and the development of the soul.
Wound Points: 60

Passions

Rage Stimulus: Christian Conservatives.
Fear Stimulus: (Violence) disfiguring her face, especially her teeth. Even getting punched hard in the head can set her off.
Noble Stimulus: Pregnant women.

Stats

Body: 60 (Curvy)
Speed: 60 (Skittish)
Mind: 50 (Flakey)
Soul: 70 (Comforting)

Skills

Body Skills: Yoga (Athletics) 30%, Struggle 30%, Voluptuous 15%, Get Pregnant 15%
Speed Skills: Drive 25%, Take Cover (Dodge) 50%, Initiative 53%
Mind Skills: Education 25%, Conceal 45%, Notice 25%, Midwifery 15%
Soul Skills: Southern Hospitality (Charm) 45%, Bluff 30%, Handcrafts 15%, See Auras 15%, Good Judge of Character 15%, Magick: Maternamancy 45%

Magick: Maternamancy: Michelle practices a variation of the school — she gains Minor charges from drinking semen while pregnant, which she understands as taking on extra “soul-bits” when her body is in a condition to capture them. Although she knows that living descendents will prevent her from keeping the soul-bits within her, Michelle has not figured out how to generate Significant charges. She also cannot generate charges through eating menstrual tissue, since she believes that the soul originates from the man, and the woman is only the vessel.

Known Rituals: Purifying Bath, Medicine Bag.

Madness Meters

Violence: 1 hard / 1 failed
Unnatural: 2 hard / 1 failed
Helplessness: 0 hard / 2 failed
Isolation: 1 hard / 0 failed
Self: 0 hard / 0 failed

Possessions: .38 special (licensed for the home only), pre-loaded with blanks. One speed loader of Artifact bullets that provide relatively steady aim, automatically inflicting a minor wound (each inflicts only 12 points of damage). A small 2-bedroom rent controlled apartment on the Manhattan’s Lower East Side, across the street from a clinic-full of people who know and admire her role in the Abortion Railroad.

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