Unknown Armies: Mack "the Knife" Heathrow - Avatar of The Highwayman

No one knows where exactly Mack came from. Some say he was a famous mob boss who got bored of being in charge, faked his own death, and then used magick to change every aspect of his appearance. Maybe he's a disgraced godwalker, who hid rather than try to reclaim his symbolic throne after getting kicked out of the statosphere. His strange accent and outdated slang might also point to potential time travel. The only thing anyone knows for sure is that he drove into town one day on a Harley, robbed a bank, and then invited everyone for a round of drinks at the bar two blocks down.

Personality: Blunt and honest to a fault. Talks like he gargles gravel every morning, but has a surprisingly beautiful singing voice. Prefers the company of avatars to other kinds of chargers and checkers. Pretends to ignore you before latching on with a thousand-yard stare. 

Rage: People who don't know who they are or misrepresent themselves. All the world's a stage and everyone's got a part to play. Don't fuck it up.

Noble: Humans have an immortal soul that survives the flesh, animals don't. They are without sin and not to be treated cruelly. Mack is a vegetarian, but doesn't begrudge others for eating meat. He also remains blissfully unaware of the bastardry perpetrated by chimps and dolphins.
Fear: Not being able to breathe. The Knife never learned how to swim and saw a few people lynched as a child. Large bodies of water paralyze him with terror and awe. Gallows and nooses also put him on edge (Helplessness)
Obsession: Chasing the thrill of the next job.

Ongoing Madness: Mack is a recovering alcoholic. He doesn't feel the cravings anymore, but that might change if something cuts through his hardened Violence notches.
Wound Threshold: 60

Nature Lover 60%: Of course I can handle wild animals, not get lost in the wilderness, start a fire without matches (Subs Fitness, Protects Isolation, Provides Wound Threshold)

Biker 60%: Of course I can do basic automotive repairs, know my way around illegal drugs, sniff out narcs and other liars (Subs Pursuit, Subs Struggle, Provides Firearms Attacks)
The Highwayman 97%*: (Avatar, Casts Rituals, Uses Gutter Magick) *obsession identity

 

Notches	Violence	Unnatural	Helplessness	Isolation	Self
Hardened	7	4	2	4	1
Failed	4	2	1	0	2

Appearance: Ashen skin, nose purple and swollen. Cobalt blue macaw perched on a leather shoulder pad stained white with bird poop. Falconry glove on his right hand (he's left handed). Mack wears a lot of red and brown, to hide any bloodstains. He's completely bald, save for some whiskery stubble, and wears a beanie when it's too cold or wet outside.

Possessions: Mack owns a farmhouse with an attached aviary out in the middle of nowhere. He also has all of the artifacts listed below.

ARTIFACT: The Blur

Power: Minor-ish

Description: A normal black motorcycle with red highlights. The fuel filler cap is fused shut to the gas tank. Mack got a matched success on his avatar channeling roll when he bought this, so it has an extra magickal power: never needing to be fueled up so long as it still has charges. It has four left out of an original total of seven.

Effect: By slapping the gas tank and whistling, the rider can spend one charge to move the success level of a Pursuit roll a step up; fumble to matched failure, failure to success, etc. Watching space warp around you is a rank 2 Unnatural check, rank 3 if you're a passenger. It just barely seats two, but a third person can cling on with a Fitness check or an identity with a relevant "Of course I can..." Failure incurs a rank 2 Helplessness check, rank 3 if you're warping. You only fall off with a matched failure or fumble.

 

ARTIFACT: Cassidy

Power: Minor

Description: A massive bird, so blue that it looks fake. An ornithologist would recognize her as a hyacinth macaw, one of the largest tropical birds by length. Loves dried cranberries and peanuts. She's very affectionate, but doesn't know her own (beak) strength.

Effect: When Cassidy is in earshot, Mack can instinctively spend one of her charges whenever someone tries to catch him off guard. She lets out a guttural alarm call, allowing both of them to to act first in initiative. Though this is a prescient magickal effect, it doesn't work if Mack is somehow deafened or Cassidy silenced. She started off with nine charges and only has five left. Anyone who wins her trust can use her as an "artifact," not just Mack.

CASSIDY

WT: 20

Bitey lil' Fucker 25%: (Subs Struggle, Subs Fitness) does unarmed damage without crits

Magickal Creature 50%*: (Specific Protection: malignant magick) *obsession identity

Prey Animal 75%: (Subs Pursuit, Subs Dodge, Subs Notice)

Cassidy is one of a long line of tropical birds with similar magickal powers. 

 

ARTIFACT: Charlie the "Guard Goat"

Power: Minor

Description: A brown goat, so dark he's almost black, with massive horns that curl and stretch back to his haunches. He has two modes: "just chilling" and "aggressively challenging everyone in sight to a headbutting match."

Effect: Whoever slaughters Charlie in a ritual context gains nine hunches to use on themselves. You can choose when to spend them, but they must be spent in the order they were rolled. A successful roll of Secrets (not an identity that subs for it) or any Vague or Specific Information supernatural identity can apply one of the hunch rolls to someone else. But if you fail, it's locked in for your next roll. Using one of the hunches is a rank 2-4 Unnatural check, depending on how unusual the result is. Mack currently uses Charlie to 'mow' the grass around his house so that it doesn't attract snakes or rats. His horns count as a helmet, acting as +3 weapon and protecting him from harm (see page 62 of Book 1 - Play).

CHARLIE

WT: 50

Big Goat 60%: (Subs Struggle, Subs Fitness, Subs Notice)

Harbinger of Doom 40%: (Vague Harm: satanic bleating) he can also toss out a 3-5 Isolation check instead of a whammy; My God, My God, why hast Thou forsaken Me?

Red Eyes Take Warning 50%: (Specific Harm: poltergeist shenanigans) his eyes are normally a boring muddy yellow, but when they start to glow, you'd better duck

Charlie's supernatural identities get a +20% shift against Christians, +10% if they're Catholic or particularly orthodox, -10% if they're lapsed.

Is he the Charlie, famous for his breakout role as Black Phillip in A24's The VVitch? Maybe! Either way, he lacks an obsession because he's spiritually empty. He won't resist if someone calmly approaches him with a rope and a sacrificial knife. Okay, he'll probably resist a little, cuz he's a goat, but he won't break out any of his supernatural powers. 

If the GM wants to make things difficult, calmly walking up to Charlie requires a successful stress check. The roll won't change your notches, but if you fail, Charlie treats you like any other intruder with a knife and attacks. Mack might also intervene, shaking Charlie out of his sacrificial trance with a well-timed shout or whistle.

ARTIFACT: Cheka the Serval

Power: Minor 

Description: A sleek spotted (tame) wildcat with a pink stripe down his nose. Cheka has six pointy three-sided spots scattered across his flanks. He used to have a seventh.

Effect: You bleach a fortune cookie paper slip (or get your hands on a blank one), write a question on it, rip it to shreds, and sprinkle it into Cheka's food. Three hours, three minutes, and three seconds after he finishes his meal, he pukes it all up. This uses up a charge, causing one of his triangle-spots to morph into a regular splotch or fade away. Anyone can roll Secrecy or an identity with the Casts Rituals or Use Gutter Magick features to interpret the vomit like an emetic haruspex. Success answers the question like a Specific Information or a Significant Inform spell. Failure is just Vague Information or Minor Inform. Mack has only used Cheka's powers once because he feels bad making the cat throw up.

ARTIFACT: Knucklebusters

Power: Minor

Description: Four nugget rings with silver inlays that spell out M-A-C-K.

Effect: Mack can activate one of the rings by kissing it. This requires a successful Fitness roll if he wants to kiss it and make an attack on the same turn. Once activated, the silver letter glows and hums like a power line. The next punch that connects causes the silver to explode into a cloud of glittering dust with an earsplitting crack. This sends the target flying back and inflicts damage like a melee weapon with a +3 wound bonus. Mack wears the rings on his left hand. He used to wear the fifth on his right ring finger, but now it dangles around his neck on a chain.

 

ARTIFACT: Midnight the "Asholot"

Power: Minor

Description: A slate-gray eyeless melanistic axolotl. Has an uncanny ability to tell people apart by smell and sound and moves around in his tank to 'stare' at them. Mack 'mispronounces' the word ever since a breeder told him it was closer to the original Nahuatl.

Effect: You stroke Midnight's body from head to tail-tip, close your eyes, and make a Secrecy roll. On a success you don't need eyes to see for hours equal to the sum of the dice. On a failure, it's just minutes. Midnight has two charges left out of his original five. Mack's favorite trick is to cut the power and then terrorize any would-be intruders like the guy from Don't Breathe. He doesn't do it often because it's not good to handle amphibians, and he's worried Midnight will revert to just being a dumb salamander when he loses all his charges. He's right.

ARTIFACT: Scaramanga

Power: Minor

Description: A gold-plated revolver with Mack's initials calligraphied onto the grips.

Effect: If someone fails a stress check and their immediate reaction is to fire this gun, they don't have to choose between panic, paralysis, or frenzy. You still take the failed notch. The gun doesn't have to be in your hand, drawing it from a holster still counts as an immediate reaction. It also doesn't matter where you shoot it, so long as it goes off. The gun has two out of seven charges left, which bear no relation to the number of bullets in the gun. However, if you were to secretly unload it, Mack wouldn't be able to use its magickal powers.

WHAT YOU HEAR

Mack is dangerously close to burning out and losing his powers. He's also a recovering alcoholic. Unfortunately, Mack has had difficulty finding a therapist ever since he killed his last one. The guy removed his fifth failed Violence notch, but he also erased one of his hardened notches. Mack can't afford to be soft in his line of work, and he didn't like being made 5% less effective at threatening people. Anyone brave enough to be his counselor can gain his favor. Though administering "the talking cure" to a psycho is likely unnerving enough to inflict a few stress checks on the PC acting as a therapist.

Parrots are The Knife's favorite kind of creature. Whenever he uses up all of their charges, he lets them go. Though, only if they want to. Plenty of his birds are attached enough (or not suited for life in the wild) that they choose to stay in his aviary. Wherever you choose to put Mack in your campaign should have an unusual population of tropical birds, like the parrots of San Fransisco. As magickal creatures, they're perfect for powering up rituals, gutter magick, or creating artifacts. Unfortunately, Mack is fiercely protective of them, so you'd better not get caught stealing one or figure out a way to use one without hurting it. The free-roaming ones seem like better targets, but catching them is easier said than done. While they don't have any charges left, they retain their supernatural identities.

Alternatively, the PCs could help protect Mack's animals from another cabal.

Mack hasn't eaten meat for a very long time. Serving him long pork is another way to earn his favor. Though you'll need to figure out some way to help him tank the Self check from eating it. Plus all the complications that come with turning a person into a dinner. Mack doesn't want to just eat human flesh, he could bite someone in a fight for that. He wants it to taste good too.

Whenever Mack buys an exotic pet with his third channel, the power of humanity's collective unconscious bestows it with increased intelligence. However, this is only temporary. Once all the animal's charges are gone, it regresses, Flowers for Algernon style. This upsets Mack in the same way losing someone to dementia might upset a normal person. The degeneration is less pronounced if the animal was clever to start with, which is one of the reasons Mack has so many parrots. Mack has tried to refill his pets' charges by pampering them with expensive toys, food, or upgrades to their habitats. Sometimes this works. Other times he ends up with a magickal heat lamp or water filter. In the worst case scenario, the Statosphere treats his attempt to cheat the "easy come, easy go" dynamic inherent to his third channel as breaking taboo. However, an adept with charges to burn could easily recharge Mack's animal artifacts.

Inversely, Mack's also looking for a way to drain Charlie of his charges, so he's not a target anymore. If he can get the nine hunches in the process, even better. He'd also be happy to hand them all over as payment to any adept or thaumaturge who could help him. Of course, this won't save Charlie. Plenty of people won't have gotten the memo or are too desperate to give up. Plus, he'd still be a potent ritual aid. Best case scenario: someone steals him to use as a "guard goat" for their farmhouse.

MACK'S FAVOR

Okay, I hear you ask, but why would I want to get on the good side of this vegetarian maniac? Firstly, Mack is a thief and a robber. Gaining his favor is an easy way to stop him from stealing your shit. His rage passion also makes him a rare straightforward figure in the occult underground. If the players are sick of dealing in half truths and Machiavellian scheming, they can always hit up Mack for advice or information. Sometimes his third channel produces a "useless" artifact. Mack usually hangs onto these in the hopes that they'll come in handy later, but he'll happily trade them for favors or hard cash. If the PC cabal is on good enough terms, he might give one out as a gift. He can also act as a bizarre Santa figure; seizing upon a PC's offhand remark about wanting some rare item and vanishing, only to turn up with that exact thing a few days, weeks, or months later. Finally, Mack is a powerful ally. If the players need a hard hitter, he might lend a hand. Though he'll never turn down an opportunity to go on a heist or robbery, so long as it plays nice with his passions. The PCs can also use his high avatar identity score to succeed on a ritual or gutter magick roll they can't afford to fail at.