Return of Nitemare

Uh. Spoilers Ahead. CW for teenage endangerment, death, cults, suicide.

Spark Party

The ongoing RPG campaign that RoN is based off of is called “Spark Party” and takes place in an updated version of the Paragons setting in the city of Cleveland. Basically, in 2012 someone blew up the Perry Nuclear Power Plant/*, and people started getting superpowers. Game starts in 2022, and The V-team, a group of four Player Characters, consisting of Vale, Verona, Vincent (my PC), and Vulpin have to band together, because it turns out that the world's going to end because there's going to be an overlap between the mystical realm of fear itself and the physical realm, and humanity's going to be hunted for sport. Shit gets… complicated fast. (Surprisingly, not a TMA crossover.)

/* So this one time traveling lesbian didn't like that the end of the world kills her wife, so she decides to cause problems on purpose to try and stop it, we support women's wrongs here.

Return of Nitemare

In an alternate sequence of events than the actual campaign, in early 2025 the four heroes manage to bind the embodiment-gods (Nitemare Lords) of each of the main fears and bind them into human bodies for twenty years to see if a further understanding of humanity can convince them to alter the overlap and preserve humanity. In the year 2042, when the incarnate fears are about 17, a serial killer starts targeting members of the occult community, seemingly striking at random in the greater Ohio region. The Occultist Desiree Wright is asked to look into those killed to see if the Ohio Mage's Circle can aid police investigation into the matter. Ultimately, she and her apprentice, Colton Briggs, are dragged into intrigue surrounding a plot by an old society of mages named The Pact to free the trapped Nitemare Lords. Facing a second end of the world, Desiree and Colton are forced to contact Dee's old companions and find the other kids before they get shucked out of their bodies. Characters

Incarnate Fears

• Dark: Colton Briggs acts as the human vessel for the fear of the dark, who takes the form of his headmate Shadow, the former entity communicating with the V-team on behalf of the wider embodiments of fear. Their relationship is deeply resentful, with Shadow bitter about needing Colton to exist in sunlight while Colton feels as if his life is being stolen. They are currently in high school, and are being trained in the occult arts by his godmother, Desiree Wright. Extremely photosensitive.
• Claustrophobia: While unaware of her state, Colton's childhood friend Miryam is the incarnation of Claustrophobia. As a second-generation immigrant, she struggles with belonging, and is currently focusing on her studies, but does get up to mischief with Colton in her free time.
• Hound: The fear of dogs is currently living as a girl named Roxie, who is a student athlete and canonically is a tech enthusiast with an interest in retro gaming. Roxie is fully aware of her past life, but deeply enjoys being human, and wants to stay as long as she can. Additionally, she has a friendship/mentorship with Reynard, who we'll get to.
• Snake: Mercy is the name that the fear of snakes has chosen for herself. While she is equally aware of her true nature, she is much less content than her frenemy Roxie, her personality marked by a deep hunger for attention, dopamine, and power. The kind of girl who uses a pop-punk persona to justify being awful. Is in a formal mentorship program under the supervision of Verona.
• Spider: Amara is in a similar situation to Colton, a human girl sharing her body with her respective fear, the fear of spiders. However unlike Colton's relationship with Shadow, Amara respects Spider and views her as a guide and mentor. Amara has a deep belief that the universe is ultimately causal and bound by fate, and as such studies astronomy as a science alongside divination as spiritual practice.
• Storms: The fear of storms is currently living as Jules Carmona. Jules is lifelong friends with Amara, having met at a church gathering in early childhood. Jules is the most driven and socially charismatic of the group. They, alongside Amara, were told of a meeting of fear-gods would happen to cause the end of the world and that they had a duty to stop it. About that.

V-Team (Past/Future)

• Vincent Banks/Desiree Wright: Vincent Banks was a pharmaceutical sales rep who moonlighted as a leader of a cult promising to grant his followers paranormal abilities. His remarkable talent in the occult and ability to literally manipulate people's emotions at will were vital to saving the world and binding the Nitemare Lords. After sacrificing the long-term survival of that cult to perform the binding, Vincent disbanded his cult, married his partner, attempted to end his life…. and realized that she was a woman. After transitioning, she joined the Ohio Mages Circle and encountered Colton's mother, a former cult member. Eventually, she started to train Colton in how to master his abilities, became his godmother, and eventually started to teach him magic. She's frank about her past, but has a new life as an occultist and community member.
• Vulpin/Fox Lennox/Reynard Knox: One day, the concept of a phantom thief awoke in the body of a starving artist. Unable to restore the body's original owner, he decided to make something of the life he took, becoming a world-class art restorer and artist, while continuing to pursue his true purpose as an art thief. After sacrificing his purpose to bind the Nitemare Lords, and seemingly losing Vincent to suicide, Vulpin spiraled into hedonism and acts of terror to fill the hole, losing all human connection. Eventually he encounters the child Roxie and attempts to guide her to a better path. However, after seemingly receiving a text from a dead friend, Reynard finds himself once more called to be a hero.
• Verona Ariti: Verona Ariti's mother was a victim of the tragedy at Perry, a dark stain of tragedy that motivated her search for justice. Verona was an ordinary medical student until she discovered a pharmaceuticals company performing illegal and unethical experimentation into a substance that could be used to suppress paranormal abilities. Now drawing the ire of an international corporation, Verona was forced to abandon her education and hide, only to be torn apart by spectral hounds. Her scientific and practical knowledge helped the V-Team greatly on their journey, and she took the sacrifice of her arms in stride, resuming her education. Unfortunately, she then witnessed Reynard's spiral and Vincent's apparent suicide. However, it seems that Desiree's cry for help will disrupt her seemingly normal life and drag her back into the supernatural awfulness of those years past.
• Valerie Summers/Willow: Valerie Summers was a normal woman, acting a nurse for the dying, until death itself came for her. Choosing to die before cancer killed her, she found herself awakening from her deathbed with a second voice in her head, that of Willow. Willow, the embodiement of the fear of Death, slowly found herself adapting to her humanity, and joining the fight to keep her compatriots from ending mankind. She never spoke of what she sacrificed those years past, but settled in to a future with her wife [Redacted]. Hiding the truth of Desiree's survival for 17 years, the two now have to ensure the safety of her fellow Incarnates, as well as mediate the delicate balance between her former friends.
• V[Redacted]/Soothsayer: Once upon a time, a woman watched the world end. She unraveled time, defying the gods of fear itself to save Vale, the woman she loved, and reset the world, crashing the paranormal into the mundane in order to give humanity a chance of survival. For this, her name became a weapon against her, and she erased her existence from the world. Now, pursued by the Nitemare Lords, she must balance preventing the apocalypse with ensuring her safety.