An entropomancer dies before they can spend their major charge and it starts leaking.

Lucy Green was an entropomancer who was in love with Will Scott and she wanted a major charge. Now, she could have just set up a situation where she risked both their lives, but, because she was in love, she wanted Will to know what she was doing and how much it meant to her. So she suggested to Will that blindfolding themselves and running across the freeway hand in hand would be a fun and exciting experience. Somewhat to her surprise he agreed.

Lucy always felt that sunset and full moons were her luckiest time, so, just after 6pm on the night of the next full moon they did just that. They made it across two lanes then got hit by an SUV on the third. Unfortunately for Lucy, she couldn’t use the charges she had stored up (or the major charge she’d just gained) to save herself or Will. Because the SUV struck Will first and Will was an avatar of the Fool. Who else would agree to such a plan? He bounced the damage straight on to her and she was knocked out immediately. Despite first aid attempts by a driver who happened to be a nurse, she died a couple of minutes later. Will escaped with just a few scrapes and bruises.

But she had gained her major charge and it was going to do something.

One lunar month later, at 6:13pm the engine of every car within 166.5 yards of where she died just cuts out. The cars either coast to a halt or jam on the brakes depending on the driver and whoever’s in front of them. None of the engines will restart for 3 minutes and 33 seconds. Nothing else stops working, just car engines. Given that this is the tail end of rush hour, this causes quite a tail back.

A weird event like this is obviously going to attract some attention in the occult underground. Especially when it repeats itself one month later. And a month after that.

GMCs

Will Scott – Avatar of The Fool

Will is best described as a stoned surfer dude. He is not aware that he is an avatar. And if somebody told him he was, he’d probably check himself in the mirror to see if he was blue.

If questioned, he will happily talk to anybody (and probably invite them in for beer and pizza). He liked Lucy because she was “so alive” and “always doing exciting stuff”. He doesn’t seem terribly upset by the fact that she’s dead, but it’s not really in his nature to get upset by anything.

Josh Goldstein and Jesus Martilla – Clueless Mak Attaxers

They both work at the scotsmans restaurant just outside the area of the effect. They were on break when the cars stopped so saw it all. They are however totally clueless so will probably poke around a bit in a very amatuer fashion before deciding that Lucy’s ghost is haunting the freeway. But that’s probably enough to get them some kudos on the mak attax email list.

Selena Ramirez – See UA p261

She would certainly get interested. And a “haunted freeway” story might make a good segment on her show. She’s a good investigator and knows enough to work out that it’s probably not a haunting, but not enough to figure out what’s really going on. Plus she’d be more interested in getting the story than the charge anyway.

Henry Roberts – Community Leader, Local Historian and Urbanomancer

Henry starts out thinking that another urbanomancer is muscling in on his turf – causing a traffic jam to gain a significant charge. He will investigate and rapidly reach the conclusion that Lucy was an entropomancer and that there may be a major charge sat around waiting to be harvested.

He casts a “My Turf” spell over the area and tries to harvest the charge. He has no success, but can sense the power hanging around. So he theorises that he needs to try again while the traffic is actually stopped. To make doubly sure he’ll try as many ritual elements as he can to make the charge his. Surrounding the area of effect with pictures of himself, writing his name on the spot where she died, disguising himself as her and so forth.

Depending on how the PCs are doing, Henry could try his ritual on the second or third occurence.

Involving The PCs

The original accident and the mass engine failure both make the local newspapers. That should be enough to get most PCs interested.

Or they could just get caught in the first occurence.

Endgame
Unfortuantely, it’s not a major charge any more. Each time the traffic gets stopped it uses up a significant charge. But it’s still a good haul for anybody who can harvest it.

If the charge carries on leaking, it’s going to attract more serious attention. Anything from more powerful adepts through to The Sleepers and The Order Of St. Cecil. If these get involved it’s probably simplest to assume that they harvest or disperse the charge in pretty short order. Unless your PCs are a match for them of course.