Sirris
The World
(summary incoming)
Our Characters
Race: Tiefling
Gender: Male
Pronouns: He/Him
Sexuality: Asexual/Aromantic
Occupation: Post-Grad Archeologist
Race: Melarin
Gender: Female
Pronouns: She/Her
Sexuality: Gay
Occupation: Military
Race: Elf
Gender: Nonbinary
Pronouns: They/Them
Sexuality: Bisexual
Occupation: Doctor/Necromancer
Supernatural Summer Camp
Camp Hood
Camp Hood is a place for supernatural creatures to find solace for five days out of the year, make new friends, and find acceptance of themselves and their peers in a world that believes them to be creatures of myth and legend. Although named after the Mountain it is founded near, Camp Hood also references the fact that most supernatural creatures must wear a glamour to live and thrive in human society. But this is a place where not only are campers and staff encouraged to wear and be proud of their true forms, glamours are magically disrupted, encouraging becoming comfortable in one's own skin, fur, or scales.
Founded by Beth Bathory in 1968, Camp Hood sits on a small plot of land near Mt. Hood in Oregon state. Attendance has fluctuated throughout the years, usually hosting 6-10 campers a year, although their maximum capacity is 16. There are four cabins that can fit four campers each, split up by age range (campers are accepted from 13 years old to 17 years old), that are run by one of four staff. Each staff member is in charge of both a cabin and a type of activity. Activities are split into three categories: Physical, Educational, and Craft. It is up to each staff member to determine what these activities will be each year. Whichever staff member does not cover one of the activities is in charge of nourishment for the campers and staff. Every year is different and exciting as staff members try to outdo themselves or are switched out with new people when the time comes. Most staff members and campers try to attend camp every year possible.
Our Characters
Adam is the creation of Dr. Frankenstein. Dr. Frankenstein keeps Adam locked away in his laboratory for Adams first year. Curious about the outside world Adam ran away one day. Outside the laboratory Adam's adventure ended in disaster when he was nearly burned alive in a windmill by an angry mob. After the story of Frankenstein’s Monster broke out Frankenstein lost his credibility and was forced into glamour-less research to make ends meet. Adam was brought along with Dr. Frankenstein but wasn’t allowed into the public until Dr. Frankenstein was approached by a lab-mate who told him about the existence of glamours and gifted Adam with the ability to make one. With his true identity hidden Adam got the freedom to go outside and have tutors to teach him. Adam has developed a love for sports, especially baseball, though he and Dr. Frankenstein never stay in one location long enough for him to join any teams.
name meaning: dweller on the field, pure, from the land of lakes;
Son of The Lonely Kelpie.
The Lonely Kelpie is a kelpie turned human in exchange for the hand, and continued affections, of the woman who discovered and trapped him in his kelpie form; forcing him to work on her family’s farm. Unfortunately, Blair’s kelpie ancestry kept on through him. It was hard raising and giving birth to an ill-tempered, sharp toothed foal. As was keeping family and friends away from seeing your baby because it hasn’t learned to assume a human form yet. Let’s not forget being unable to hire any sitters or farmhands to watch your child because even as a horse it only consumes raw meat. The wizard who turned Blair’s father human refused to transform the child till he was of age to make the choice himself. Blair was raised in near complete isolation, with a strict set of rules to restrict him from embracing his kelpie nature. Summer camp is his father’s last and only attempt to socialize his child. Blair is shy and largely ashamed if not downright scared of being a kelpie, and how much he actually wants to embrace being one. Blair’s kelpie magic is largely underdeveloped, and as such he has been unable to completely shapeshift into a human form, his hooves being ever present. Physical contact is rare if not non-existent for him, giving him no practice fighting his natural instinct to adhere living creatures to his flesh. His only item of note is a large adder stone tied to the end of his braid, originally given to him as a child to ensure his parents had a way of dragging their wayward child from any ponds he’d run away to, and keep him safe; he is always with it. He doesn’t know how to feel about summer camp, where exactly he belongs there, and what to do about the influx of creatures much stranger than himself.
Our NPCs
Hello it's Eliane, the GM for this campaign! Since I didn't have a lot of time to flesh out these characters in the podcast, I wanted to list them out here because I find legendary creatures to be really interesting and I wanted to make this camp very diverse while also getting suggestions from the Spirits Podcast Facebook Group. I didn't want to draw too heavily on European traditions, even though about half of them are from European traditions (some of which I took some liberties with, since the original myth has become so well known in American pop culture), so there are quite a few creatures that I wanted to be sensitive of, since their stories are not mine to tell. I encourage you if you're interested in the source material please look more into them! So here's our cast of characters, since there's probably a couple in there that actually I didn't do a very good job on.
-Vampire
-Owner/Founder of Camp Hood
-Looks like she's in her early 20's but founded the camp 50 years ago. What does she do when she's not at camp? Who knows, but it's probably not good. She's too rich to have a job anyway.
-Based on Elizabeth Bathory
-Suggested from the Spirits FB Group (thanks Jim!, sorry I only gave her one line!)
-Greek God Dionysus
-Counselor for A Cabin/In charge of Craft Activities
-Honestly who knows how old they are, but they're a distinguished stage actor.
-I did quite a bit of searching into the origin of Dionysus's worship and traced it back to Minoan Crete which miiiiiight have had some Middle Eastern influences so I wanted to make their features in-game reflect that aspect more.
-Suggested from the Spirits FB Group (Thanks Jessi! I'm sorry I couldn't have them organize a talent show)
-Wendigo
-Counselor for B Cabin/In charge of Physical Activities
-I like to think she's in her mid-40's but still going strong with that skin and bone look. Like a terrible terrible thinspo blog. I don't know what she does when she's not at camp, honestly.
-Wendigos in the Algonquian tradition are definitely evil spirits and cannibals which I had to cut out for the sake of this being a lighthearted summer camp.
-I gave her a Potawatomi name which, according to the internet, means 'pretty girl'. I wanted to have a little fun and gave this gaunt terrifying creature a name that meant pretty girl.
-Suggested by the Spirits FB Group (thanks again to Jim, sorry I didn't name her Wendy, but hopefully the name I gave her was fun enough to counteract the wendy/wendigo soundalike)
-Lamia
-Counselor for C Cabin/In charge of Educational Activities
-She's in her early 30's. Definitely a Kindergarten teacher.
-I have some Basque heritage on my father's side but have never learned the mythology of the culture.
-Saioa is the name of a mountain in the Basque region of Spain. I like to think that Saioa's parents named her this because they were from the area and missed it.
-(also picture Miss Honey from Matilda but with duck feet! That's my image of Saioa!)
-Baba Yaga
-Counselor for D Cabin/In charge of meals
-She's ancient and runs a small magic shop but is so annoyed when people come to ask her for things. Just hand her money and leave.
-Suggested by the Spirits FB Group! (thanks Eric! I love having her here)
-A Cabin (17 years old, has been coming to camp since she was 13)
-Izarra was my first Dungeons and Dragons character. She was a tiefling druid and I love her very much and missed playing her. Somewhere in her campaign some magic happened to her changing her from a tiefling to a wildling which came with all sorts of physical changes (like permanent Barkskin). This version of her combines my favorite bits of the two and it's why she's half Demon half Nymph, because the D&D backstory doesn't fit into traditional myths.
-Izarra means "Star" in Basque and so Saioa likes to call her "my little star" and I think that's adorable
-Anyway! I love my girl!
-B Cabin (16 years old, came to camp when she was 13 but when she was 14/15 a 4H event was on the same week, so she couldn't be here. But that event was last week, and he's glad to be back at camp.)
-Based off of Circe
-Depending on what your source material is, Circe could be a nymph, witch, or sorceress. I went with nymph because I like nymphs??
-She's so good with animals though, she's in 4-H, she's in FFA, her pigs won blue ribbons at THREE straight State's Fairs.
-Suggested by the Spirits FB Group! (Thanks Jim! Sorry I went with Kiki instead of Ceecee, I really like pronouncing Circe with the hard C's)
-B Cabin (17 years old, has been coming to camp since he was 13)
-Based off of Rakshasa
-Rakesh is a Hindu name that, according to the internet, means lord of the night (moon).
-I ran into the same problem with Wendigos in that a loooot of supernatural creatures are evil spirits and do terrible things? Like cannibalism! Bloodlust! But it's summer camp, so nobody is a cannibal. That's against the rules. But Rakesh is always the first one to meals. He gets hungry!
-(Partially) Suggested by the Spirits FB Group! (Thanks Jim, sorry that I completely changed the suggested character. The only thing that stayed the same is the Rakshasa part, oops)
-B Cabin (16 years old, this is his first time at camp)
-Based off of a Kishi
-I HONESTLY COULD NOT FIND A LOT ABOUT MA-KISHI
-Named him after one of the sons in this legend
-Usually he keeps his hair down because he thinks the hyena head is off-putting to people, but this is summer camp, where all glamours are off (usually just magical, but physical counts too), and so he puts his hair up and tries not to feel self-conscious about it.
-Again, what I could find about Ma-kishi is. Not great! They eat people, basically, so I did my best.
-A Kishi was suggested by a friend on Discord. Thanks!
-B Cabin (17 years old, has been coming to camp since she was 13)
-Jinn
-A lot of Jinn legends contradict each other, and the stuff in modern day pop culture is very far off from what I could find on the original creature. I decided to pick and choose some things that would fit into a Teen At Summer Camp vibe? She can do the shapeshifting, turn invisible and incorporeal, wolves are sometimes harmful to Jinn so she is uneasy around Romulus and Remus when they're in their wolf forms, even though they're her friends.
-She is Muslim and has chosen to wear the hijab.
-According to the internet, Aya is an arabic name that means wonderful, amazing, or miracle.
-C Cabin (14 years old, this is her first time at camp)
-Based off of Tikbalang
-did I look up popular names in the Phillipines and then go with Tamika because it had a similar T/K sound to Tikbalang? Maybe. Yes.
-She's from the California coast originally and just moved further North, so now she gets to go to camp!
-Hangs out with Shizue and Nalda, Pranks Club!
-(Partially) suggested by the Spirits FB Group! (Thanks again to Jim, who provided so many ideas, including a Tikbalang which the only things I kept were the Tikbalang and playing pranks bits. My bad!)
-C Cabin (15 years old, has been coming to camp since he was 13)
-he's a Werewolf, and I like the idea of werewolves being able to shift partially (with concentration or great emotion) when it's not a full moon, but having the shift be compulsory and more complete on the full moon.
-he and Romulus are twins
-He was named after Remus Lupin from Harry Potter because his parents are huge nerds and thought it would be funny to name their son after a fictional werewolf. Remus did not think this was cool because sometimes at school kids are like "uh wasn't remus white?" to which he responds "yeah but he was also a werewolf which is made up so it doesn't matter if I'm black because I'm real"
-Started liking it a lot more when his brother started going by Romulus tbh
-C Cabin (15 years old, has been going to camp since he was 13)
-also a werewolf, because he and Remus are twins
-Named himself after the Roman figure, (except he's not planning on murdering his brother) when he started socially transitioning.
-He really looks up to Dion
-C Cabin (15 years old, has been going to camp since they were 14)
-Based off of Haetae
-I gave them both a humanoid form and animal form for this, even though the haetae aren't shapeshifters, because it's a bit difficult for a lion to do archery and make crafts at a summer camp. They can shift between forms at will.
-Hyeon-U (현우) (賢祐) is a Korean name which, according to the internet, means (賢) virtuous, worthy, able combined with (祐) divine intervention, protection.
-They want to be a lawyer when they grow up
-D Cabin (13 years old, this is her first time at camp)
-Based off of Ammit
-I have her as a descendant of the Egyptian Goddess, and in her family the first born girl is always named Ammit. It's a family name so it feels important but really she prefers to be called Amy, since it's easier for the other kids she knows to pronounce. This upsets her mother since she doesn't think that Ammit is proud of her heritage.
-Ammit is another hard one, since the portrayal of the Egyptian goddess is a compilation of crocodile, lion, and hippo, but that would be really hard for a summer camp. I decided that she'd had both a humanoid form and an animal form. In humanoid form she has brown skin, partial facial features of a lion, her hair is a golden mane, she has human arms but her feet are those of a hippo, and she has a crocodile tail. She also has some scales that run along her back and arms. Animal form is simply lion head and torso, hippo back half and legs, and crocodile tail. It is not the traditional build of Ammit but maybe some of the pieces got moved around in the generations.
-Suggested by the Spirits FB Group! (Thanks Jim, except I completely changed her personality)
-D Cabin (13 years old, this is their first time at camp)
-Kappa
-A bit more humanoid than your traditional Kappa. Still blue and scaled and has a beak and shell and webbed feet and hands but the head dent that has to be full of water while on land unless they want to die seemed a bit dire so I just have them have to keep their hair wet. They keep a full water bottle with them at all times for this purpose.
-Hangs out with and looks up to Tamika and Nalda, Pranks club!
-I named them after Japanese swimmer Miyabe Shizue.
-A Kappa was suggested by a friend on Discord, thanks!
-D Cabin (14 years old, has been coming to camp since she was 13)
-Jengu
-God I love water spirits
-Definitely has that long hair and beautiful gap-teeth.
-Her tail I based off of the colors of a Jae Barb
-Quanna is an alternate version of the French name Ninon, which I took from Ninon Abena, a Cameroonian football(soccer) player.
-She uses a wheelchair to get around on land and keeps a water bottle handy to keep her scales from drying out. It's not necessarily dangerous if they get a bit dry but it is very itchy.
-D Cabin (14 years old, has been coming to camp since they were 13)
-Based off of a Cuca
-Basically a Humanoid Alligator. Everywhere that isn't greenish-brown scales is bronze skin.
-Nalda is a Spanish name that means, according to the internet, Strong.
-Hangs out with Tamkia and Shizue, Pranks Club! (Since they're the only one who's been to camp before, the other two look toward them for guidance)
-Finds it difficult to communicate verbally and mostly uses American Sign Language