Scion: The Band

 "So we've got Nemeans in the Bayou, cults in the French Quarter, a bunch of Titanspawn, and a whole bunch of other crap to deal with... Who wants coffee?" Violet Steitz

The Band: So, for the past few months, I've been alternating between D&D characters and Scion ones, and a couple of weekends ago I posted the last member of the Band I've been building: The Saints. 

The members of the Band are:

Violet Steitz, a Chosen Scion of Loki, has been chosen at least to test her resolve (because Loki always plays that sort of game). 

John Landry, a Born Scion of Shango, whose path has brought him from New Orleans' roughest neighbourhoods, which he still works hard to protect. 

Rosa Lopez: a Born Scion of Xochipilli, finding her way in a new country and world after a life of luxury in Bogota. 

Jane Running Deer: a Scion of Maudjee-Kawiss who grew up in a harsh Potemkin World where her father tested her ruthlessly... before she failed and was exiled back into the World.

Conner McLugh: Scion of Lugh, who was raised in one of the Terra Incognita realms (in this case, a small island just off the coast of Ireland).

These figures met at various stages of their own adventures, coming together to deal with either a threat too big for them to handle alone or to help adjust to the new reality they were thrust into.

Violet is the glue holding this group together, their leader and the one who connects all of them. She works as closely as she can with all of them, even passing John off as an informant to her colleagues in the police. This has made her the Band's default leader, which she sometimes struggles with. 

Conner and John are the closest out of the other Scions, Conner's work brings him into contact with John's community regularly and they started going out for Friday night beers within a couple of months of that beginning. 

Jane remains the outsider of the Band, partly because she lives a few hours' drive from New Orleans. She remains a good ally though and is responsive to others' needs. She and John have an understanding because both of them are the children of war gods. They frequently spar, partly to test which of them is the strongest. In contrast, she and Conner argue a lot; she's jealous of his close relationship with Lugh when her father treated her so poorly. This makes things difficult between them and they often end up fighting - much to the amusement of the other characters (Violet has been known to tell them, "Get a room, you two").

As the Nemean problem grows greater, the Band feels no choice but to prioritise dealing with them, starting with the immense alligator that's been menacing the Bayou. Other threats will have to wait (and some of them may even be connected to the Creatures of Unusual Size. 

New Orleans: If you want to read a primer of New Orleans then the Wikipedia entry is a good place to start (but not to finish). The short version is that it's a large city at the mouth of the Mississippi River and has a reputation for jazz and voodoo (something popularised by the 1930s film White Zombie starring Bela Lugosi) and became popular with Goths in the 1980s and 90s because of Anne Rice's and Poppy Z Brite's vampire novels. In 2005 the city was badly affected by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, which led to mass migration from the city and, eventually, rebuilding. The city has been recovering ever since and almost 20 years later, continues to grow. 

Within the World, we can play with certain things - for example the Hurricanes not being natural but part of the war between the Gods and Titans seems almost too obvious (and could be seen as insulting to the heartache and damage the storms caused). The French Quarter remains important, not just because of the tourist Dollars it brings in but the confluence of the various elements that gather there. Admittedly, almost all the "occult" stuff in the Quarter is trash, but occasionally you can find someone selling the real thing. Rosa has found the area lucrative, even if most of her fortune-telling there is of the "You will meet a tall, dark (and fictional) stranger" variety. 

The graveyards remain a good resource for necromancers and the Death Gods have a strong presence there. Sonponna, the Orisha of Smallpox has a lot of influence there, in the guise of Baron Samedi (let's be clear here, Sonponna isn't the Baron, but he's happy to pretend to be if it gives him an advantage). His cults are busy and work to encourage his influence, which brings them into conflict with Conner's efforts to clear up the city's health. 

In addition to the issues highlighted in the individual entries for the characters, the city has an ongoing issue with the underworld and the presence of a Titanspawn who's slowly taking over.  Heading up the Snakehead Gang, they focus on drug dealing and have a reputation for poisoning their enemies - sometimes taking their enemies and giving them so much cocaine or crack they OD. While this does mean they're using their product to execute opponents, the Snakeheads take the view that this creates confusion over their victims' lives - creating the question of whether they were using. It's only a matter of time before the Band have to step up. 

The city's markets provide many opportunities for Scions and there's usually somewhere with the Dvernings running the show (in my version of Scion they're the most organised of the non-humans living in the World). In addition, there's a branch of the Pantheon Club within the city, providing respite and succour for Scions, whoever they may be. The Club has establishments in most cities and has existed since the 1700s. In the Big Easy, the branch opened just after the Civil War (the founders refused to open any branches in the American South as they were keen abolitionists) and the building reflects that time. Currently administered by Charity Johnson, a young African American woman and Scion of Tammuz, the Club remains faithful to the promise that any chosen by the Pantheons of the World may find peace, healing, and aid within... That could be as simple as needing an A-Z of the city or as complex as finding the right people to assemble a complex ritual. The Club often takes responsibility for healing hurt Scions and hosting events.