A confused revenant imitates the Japanese kami of innocence and murders a child prostitute

SUMMARY

A confused revenant has turned himself into the image of Tarimoku, Japanese kami of innocence. He wanders a block of commission flats playing his shamisen to little children who can neither see nor hear him. When a group of young girls forms a child prostitution ring he becomes enraged and starts killing them in particularly gruesome ways.

This scenario would probably begin after the first girl has been killed, otherwise players could be drawn into the area in another way and discover the prostitution ring only to have a girl murdered afterwards.

CHILD PROSTITUTION RING

About a year ago a 14 year old girl called Michelle Jenkins was sexually assaulted by a man called Gary Whitehood. He gave her an iPod in return for her silence. Michelle, after getting over the initial shock realised that this was an easy way to get all of the nice things for herself that her parents could never afford (or were willing to buy for her). She had sex with Gary a couple more times, receiving a gift on each occasion. Eventually Gary asked her if she’d be interested in seeing any of his friends in the same capacity. By this time Michelle had already talked to her friends about who seemed keen. Before too long about five girls in the flats were regularly skipping having sex with older men in return for gifts and cash.

There is very little police presence in this area. There are the occasional drug arrests made when quotas are low or domestics sorted out when complaints are made, but for the most part the general attitude seems to be that as long as nothing spills out onto the streets, the police don’t care.

The block of flats is home to many low-income families. A very large proportion is on the dole, the remaining work in low-paying fields such as cleaning or menial labour. Many are shift workers so there are plenty of people moving around at night.

TARIMOKU

A construction worker (Nico Lagos) who built the flats back in the 60s died on the site and his soul became trapped in the building. As a young man he was obsessed with having children and this obsession caused him to become a revenant. He has since been wandering the flats in a confused state. He came across Amanda White’s flat one night where a book on Japan was open on the table. He saw the entry for ‘tarimoku’, kami of childhood innocence. It appears as a small orang-utan with a shamisen who sits in children’s cots and plays for them. Nico became obsessed with this idea and slowly became to turn into this image of the kami. Of course, the babies couldn’t see him, but he always felt good when he sat in a baby’s cot and played.

He became extremely distraught when Michelle and her friends started prostituting themselves. Over the next year his anger grew and grew until finally it became powerful enough to allow him to manifest and a raging spirit. He can only manifest once a week and when he does he brutally kills a child prostitute. His method is to kill them with an item they sold their bodies for (shoving an iPod down their throats, hanging them with a dress, stabbing them to death with a pair of heels).

This may seem incongruous, and in fact this revenant genuinely does love children and desires to protect them. The idea of a child willingly selling themselves however simply causes him so much anguish that he cannot control himself.

Tarimoku is generally happy to follow the young children, playing his shamisen. Lately it has been following the girls around and becoming more and more anguished.

Stats:

Body: 0 (70 when enraged) Vicious Claws 30%
Speed: 20 (70 when enraged)
Mind: 30
Soul: 50 Draw into House of Innocence 50%

Draw into House of Innocence: By making a roll Tarimoku can draw people into the Otherspace known as the House of Innocence. He can pull in as many people as the number on the tens dice of the roll.

HOUSE OF INNOCENCE

The House of Innocence is a wonderful land where the innocence lost by children resides. The land itself is an infinitely large sweeping meadow covered with everything children love such as play grounds, mysterious forests and ice cream shops. Every so often an enormous house breaks up the landscape. Every child has their own bedroom in one of these houses. They eat in the giant dining rooms and sit around and watch Disney movies in the TV rooms.

The weather is always perfect in this land and extremely varied. A child can swim in a lake in the warm summer weather, then jump on their bike and ride to a snowy field within minutes. Day and night follow regular cycles with children often staying up late to explore the forests or camp outside.

The average age of the children here seems to be around five to eight. There are exceptions but they are rare. Very occasionally a toddler will be seen. All of the inhabitants are extremely happy. They are children who have never been exposed to violence, sex or anything else un-childlike. They have no concept of these things.

Every person in the world who has lost their innocence has a presence here. This representation takes the form of whatever age they were when their innocence was lost.

The only adults to be found are ghostly mother-figures known as the Matrons. They float around the Otherspace without directly interfering with the children. They will watch the children when they are asked to watch and will clap and laugh along with their games. If a child wants a hug they will briefly materialise and embrace them. They will also materialise when serving food to the children or anything else that requires them to interact with the physical world. These matrons will assume everybody in the land is a child and will become very cross if anybody misbehaves. The matrons do not talk but have very expressive faces.

Stats:

Body: 0 (40 when materialised) Struggle 10%, General Athletics 10%
Speed: 40 (40 when enraged) Dodge 10%
Mind: 50 Notice 50%
Soul: 80 Avatar: The Mother 70%, Stern Look 50%

Stern Look: By simply giving somebody a Stern Look the Matron can stop you from doing whatever naughty thing it was you were about to do. If the roll succeeds the target must roll below their mind skill to perform the intended action.

Notes: When using the first avatar channel they do not need to speak; they simply cradle the person in their lap and stroke their hair.

Whenever a child loses their innocence, or takes that first step from childhood to adulthood, the part of them that was innocent is lost forever. The spirit of their innocence winds up here where it lives forever in the pure joy of childhood.

People entering the House of Innocence must make a Soul check for each day they are there. The first time they fail this check they gain a soul skill called Innocence at a value equal to the tens places of their current soul skill. Each day thereafter they make another soul check with failure adding the same amount to their Innocence skill. A shift of up to 30% can be assigned by the GM based on how often they play with the children or act in a childish way.

I.e. Sandra has a soul stat of 62. The first time she fails this check she gains the innocence skill at 6%. Each time she fails the check from here on the skill increases by another 6%.

Every time the character sees children playing they must make a significant Innocence skill check. Complete success forces the character to join in with the children’s game (which will also make it harder to pass the next Soul check). Partial success means the character can make a Mind check to resist the urge. Also, every time the character is faced with something that would cost a child their innocence (sex, violence, drugs…) they must make another significant check. Complete success has the same effect as failing a madness check and will give them a failed Self notch. Partial success will force them to try to leave the current situation. Every time this type of check is made the character loses half of the skill (rounded down). Once the skill goes below 15% it is lost for good.

If this skill ever reaches their soul stat the person is trapped in the Otherspace forever. The representation of their own innocence will appear to them, take their hand and lead them away.

There is a positive to the Innocence skill. You can use this in place of skills like Charm or Lie if you wish to convince somebody of your innocence.

Getting out of the Otherspace requires you anger the land and force it to spit you out. This can either be achieved by performing a grown-up act (having sex, shooting up) in front of some children, or doing something extremely perverse (massive orgy, ritual murder) in private. Remember though that the Matrons will actively punish anybody they see acting this way.

THE GIRLS

Michelle Jenkins – 15

Michelle started the prostitution ring. She is not their leader, just the most experienced. She is very immature, bitter and believes that she deserves everything. She sees herself as better than the men she sleeps with because in her opinion she’s the one getting all the good stuff. She has no intention of giving up what she’s doing and will fight anybody who tries to stop her. She doesn’t particularly enjoy it but figures that it beats getting a job.

Michelle isn’t extremely attractive, being a little on the overweight side. She is quite well endowed however and likes to wear clothes that show them off.

Michelle lives with both her parents and two year old brother, Zack. Her father is unemployed and is drunk most of the time while her mother works as a cleaner at the Royal Women’s Hospital.

Michelle just wants stuff. She doesn’t care about people’s feelings or getting a job or taking responsibility for anything. All she wants is to get nice things and be able to afford nice things.

Amanda White – 15

Amanda is the great-granddaughter of Terry and Miyoko White who were married in Japan during WW2. All of the women in her family had babies around the age of 18-21.

Amanda doesn’t really give a toss about selling herself one way or the other. She lost her virginity to a guy at school when she was twelve and as far as she’s concerned doing it with older guys is no different. At least they mostly know what they’re doing and give her cool stuff.

Amanda is short and thin and only shows the faintest hint of her Japanese heritage. She has long, dark hair and blue eyes, which are slightly almond shaped. Amanda is actually quite proud of where she is from. She doesn’t know much about Japan except for a book a friend gave her as a present. She hates reading but she likes looking at the pictures, especially of the scenery and the mythological stuff.

Amanda lives with her mother, Jenny. Jenny is about as trashy as they come. In fact, Amanda suspects that Jenny also works as a prostitute. She claims to get money from Centrelink but every now and again Amanda goes snooping through her things and has found her hidden jewellery collection which a dole bludger could never afford.

Amanda’s goal is to steal the jewellery and skip town once she turns 18.

Ashlyn Fisher – 14

Ashlyn lives with her two parents and twin six-month old brothers. Her parents run the milk bar downstairs. They are very well known around the flats. They are both reasonable people, educated and are excellent parents. Thomas Fisher used to be a policeman until he was beaten up by a gang of youths. He lost his nerve and couldn’t return to the force. Jane Fisher was a primary school teacher who quit her job to help Thomas run the milk bar.

Ashlyn is the most attractive of the group. She has many male admirers both at school and around the flats. She looks quite similar to Amanda, and is often mistaken for being her sister. Only the Asian cast to Amanda’s eyes betrays this.

Ashlyn is going out with a 14 year old boy called Jayden who also lives in the flats. Jayden has no idea about Ashlyn’s prostitution although he is getting a little suspicious. He’s seen a few marks on her left by clients and once went around to visit her in the evening only to discover that she’d told her parents she was at his place. He will be particularly angry when he discovers the truth because she has been refusing to sleep with him until she “feels ready”.

Ashlyn wants to get out of the flats and live somewhere nice.

Jade Wright – 14

Jade is the newest member of the group. She’s only been selling herself for three months now. The other girls don’t really like her but are being blackmailed. She caught Ashyln going down on a client behind the bins and filmed it on her mobile phone. She has told the others that she will release the film unless they let her in.

Jade is like most of the other girls. She doesn’t really care about what she’s doing as long as she keeps getting cool stuff. She’s fairly inexperienced but none of her clients care because she’s young.

The other girls have no real reason to hate Jade. She was just one of the girls in the flats who they decided to bully some time ago.

Jade wants to be running the show. She has no scruples concerning how she goes about it.

Brody Lynch – 13

Brody is the youngest of the working girls. She lost her virginity to a 60-year old man in return for a mobile phone. She actually hates doing it but she really looks up to the other girls and wants to fit in with them.

One of Brody’s customers is a drug dealer and sometimes offers to pay her with ecstasy. She’s been too scared to accept it yet but has realised that bringing drugs to the girls would really increase her reputation. None of the girls have ever done real drugs before, at least nothing beyond smoking the odd joint.

Brody has not really started developing yet, but shows signs of being a very attractive girl when she is older.

Brody lives with two younger sisters and one older one. Her older sister bullies her a lot out of jealousy (she is quite unattractive). Her parents are both dead and Aunty Judy looks after them.

Brody just wants the other girls to think she’s cool.