Nightwatch Dossier: Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast

Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast is one of the two main characters who I played in "Grey Angels," a Buffy/Angel RPG campaign that ran from 2005 to 2009, and that later resumed as a play-by-post game from 2012 to 2014. That game resumed in late 2019 for a "10 years later" reunion arc.

I talked about Trick in a very piecemeal fashion in several past Studded Plate columns prior to the current revival:

• The characters who become a part of you (3/19/2015): How Trick affected my tastes in music.
• #RPGaDay 2016: Days 1-6 (8/6/2016): How Trick got a sister.
• #RPGaDay 2016: Day 11 (8/11/2016): How Trick has influenced how I play other heroes.
• #RPGaDay 2017: Day 7 (8/6/2017): How Trick got free of Dionysus (with bonus portrait).
• TBT: #Drawlloween 2016 (8/17/2017): Trick's Animal costume.
• #RPGaDay2018: Days 13-16 (8/17/2018): How Trick got free of Dionysus (shorter version).
• #RPGaDay2018: Days 28-31 (8/29/2018): No longer the straightest girl in town.
• #Inktober2018: Days 27-31 (10/31/2018): Two portraits of Trick.
• Cassilda Tillinghast (11/13/2018): My Pathfinder Society character who was very loosely inspired by Trick.

Now that the game has resumed, I've started talking a great deal more about her here, so decided to create this "Nightwatch Dossier*" index page to collect all those links in one place. (You can also follow the "Tillinghast" tag, but this page will curate that list a little more, as I did with the older links above.)

• The Adventures of Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast (3/20/2020): An attempt to give a snapshot of the campaign, and a summary of Trick's history up to this point.
• Trick's Picks (4/8/2020): A playlist of Trick's favorite songs.
• 30-Day Song Challenge: Tillinghast Edition (4/17/2020): A meme answered in character as Trick.
• Grey Angels LEGO minis (6/9/2020): Minis of Trick, her cousin Baz, and some of their favorite NPCs.
• The State of the Blog (and the Tim) (2/8/2021): This update on my various projects here includes a rather sad update about the GA game's main creator.
• Trick's Picks (Updated) (2/12/2021): An update to last year's much-expanded playlist. (Future edits will be made here.)
• James Marlowe and the Giant Peach (4/13/2021): This one's not about Trick, but is just a sketch of a couple GA NPCs in costumes. (I'm indexing it here since most of my other GA posts are tied to Trick.)

* A note on Nightwatch, since I didn't mention it in "The Adventures of..." post above: This multinational corporation investigates occult phenomena, hunts rogue demons, researches new magic and occult tech, and sends covert teams on missions to parallel Earths and other dimensions. It is headed by Joey and Rae Maddock-Trent. (As the twin sister of Taryn Maddock, General of the Thyrian Nation, Rae is also part of the senior leadership of that organization as well.) Trick has had dealings with Nightwatch's Shadowgard office since the very early days of her involvement with the supernatural, but has never sought employment with the organization.

30-Day Song Challenge: Tillinghast Edition

My wife has been posting answers to a 30-Day Song Challenge on her Facebook this month. It's been interesting seeing her answers, but it's not normally the kind of meme I join in on. However, after posting my "Trick's Picks" playlist earlier I this month, I thought it might be fun to try answering this challenge in character as Trick. To make it more interesting, I did not repeat any songs, and only repeated artists twice. With only a couple exceptions, these are all songs that would appear in regular rotation in Trick's own playlists. In fact, many appear on my "Trick's Picks," or have been added to it since that post.

[See Trick's Nightwatch Dossier for a complete list of past posts about her.]

30-Day Song Challenge

As answered by Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast

Day 1: A song you like with a color in the title: "Mr. Blue Sky," Electric Light Orchestra. Nobody's ever going to be able to hear this song again without seeing Baby Groot dancing to it, are they? The best part of Vol. 2!

Day 2: A song you like with a number in the title: "Seven Nation Army," The White Stripes. It's got a really fun drum line.

Day 3: A song that reminds you of summertime: "Love Shack," The B-52's. The video is sunny and bright, and the song is kind of all about about how hot it is around here...

Day 4: A song that reminds you of someone you'd rather forget: "Shut Up and Dance," Walk the Moon. The line "This woman is my destiny" always reminds me of one of my ex-girlfriends, who I was more crazy in love with than anyone else before or since. (And who I'm not going to name, in case she ever sees this.) We're still friendly, but we just couldn't make it work, and if I'm completely honest with myself, I've never really gotten over her. But I love this song too much to not listen to it.

Day 5: A song that needs to be played loud: "Thunderstruck," AC/DC. Because metal demands volume!

Day 6: A song that makes you want to dance: "Uptown Funk," Mark Ronson (ft. Bruno Mars). I can't hear this song without moving!

Day 7: A song to drive to: "Life is a Highway," Rascal Flatts. This has been on every driving mix I've made since Cars.

Day 8: A song about drugs or alcohol: "Tubthumping," Chumbawamba. I love the "you are never going to keep me down" chorus, but there's an awful lot of drinking in these lyrics.

Day 9: A song that makes you happy: "Happy," Pharrell Williams. OK, kind of an obvious answer, but I'm a naturally joyful person, and it's catchy. And the video is full of people who are dancing because it's just plain fun.

Day 10: A song that makes you sad: "She Used to be Mine," Sara Bareilles. This song is about a woman who is mourning how she lost touch with the person who she used to be.

Day 11: A song you never get tired of: "Shake It Off," Taylor Swift. It's fun, and catchy, and empowering all at the same time.

Day 12: A song from your preteen years: "A Thousand Miles," Vanessa Carlton. A new hit love ballad when I was in middle school? And by a woman? Yes, please.

Day 13: A song you like from the 70s: "Dancing Queen," ABBA. This is a lovely mellow classic to groove to in between the more energetic tracks that let me really show off my dancing chops.

Day 14: A song you'd love to be played at your wedding: "Eternal Flame," The Bangles. It's a sappy, romantic song...and I love it. Plus, between my visions and becoming a Thyrian, I've kind of acquired a thing about fire imagery.

Day 15: A song you like that's a cover by another artist: "Lady Marmalade," Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink. I almost used it for Day 6 because I recently competed in a dance battle to this track. But I put it here because the Moulin Rouge cover took a good song and turned it into one of my all-time faves.

Day 16: A song that's a classic favorite: "Imagine," John Lennon. My parents grew up listening to the Beatles and other classic bands of the 60's and '70s, so I was exposed to many of them as a kid as well. This is one of Mom's favorites, because it challenges us to imagine a better, more loving world.

Day 17: A song you'd sing a duet with on karaoke: "I Got You," Sonny & Cher. It's corny as hell, but I want to sing this with someone who will look at me in the same worshipful, sappy way that Sonny and Cher looked at each other whenever they performed this song back in the '60s.

Day 18: A song from the year you were born: "Simply Irresistible," Robert Palmer (1988). It's too bad that the video is so cheesy, and objectifying AF. It was the '80s, so I can't tell if that was meant ironically or not...but I doubt it.

Day 19: A song that makes you think about life: "Stronger (What Doesn't Kill You)," Kelly Clarkson. You'll have to pardon me for getting philosophic for a moment. Pain is the great teacher. If we forget the painful events in our life, then we forget the lessons they taught us. Those things don't have to define us, but they do inform who we become. To put it another way, I am the sum of all my choices and my experiences, both the good ones and the bad ones. Who I am today is a precious gift, and I must acknowledge the path I took to get here.

Day 20: A song that has many meanings to you: "We Are the Champions," Queen. At first, this song reads as a victory anthem by a weary hero. (And, in fact, my cousin Baz claims to have led a chorus of it at a victory party after the Ragnarok.) But sometimes the borderline-plaintive tone of the song leads me to wonder if it's merely the daydreaming wish of someone who feels like an underappreciated loser. I wouldn't put it past Freddie & co. to have intended both messages.

Day 21: A song you like with a person's name in the title: "Elvis is Everywhere," Mojo Nixon & Skid Roper. This song is ridiculous, and I only listen to it very occasionally, but still amuses me after all this time.

Day 22: A song that moves you forward: "Fight Song," Rachel Platten. This song was pretty much my personal anthem when I moved back to Shadowgard to teach in my hometown and reconcile with the Maddocks, and again a few years later when I applied to become a Thyrian initiate. Too many people in this town remembered me as the angry, self-absorbed brat that I had been in high school, so I had a lot to prove to them, and to myself.

Day 23: A song you think everyone should listen to: "Brave," Sara Bareilles. Be brave enough to speak up, and to show people who the authentic, amazing you really is! 

Day 24: A song by a band that you wish were still together: "Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)," The Eurythmics. I think Annie Lennox is a big part of the reason why I think tall chicks in suits are classy--and sexy. I've been known to rock the look myself from time to time.

Day 25: A song you like by an artist no longer living: "Ballroom Blitz," The Sweet. Two of the four original band members are dead, that's close enough.

Day 26: A song that makes you want to fall in love: "Somebody to Love," Queen. This song has been a prayer of mine far too many times...

Day 27: A song that breaks your heart: "Try," P!nk. I've had my heart broken more times than I can count, but I keep trying again.

Day 28: A song by an artist whose voice you love: "Bubbly," Colbie Caillat. I'm pretty sure this song is really just all about sex, and I could listen to that gentle, caressing voice sing about that all day long.

Day 29: A song you remember from your childhood: "The Little Drummer Boy." This is the one song on this list that I actively don't like. Mostly because I remember being horribly offended that the Rankin-Bass movie didn't use drums for the title song!

Day 30: A song that reminds you of yourself: "Bitch," Meredith Brooks. I'm a passionate woman with a complicated history, who boldly wears her heart on her sleeve. I'm very aware that that can make me a right handful to deal with at times, even to--especially to?--my best friends. But those messy parts are part of who I am, too, for better or worse.

Trick's Picks

I have recreated my old "Trick's Picks" playlist on YouTube, and updated it for the 2020 reunion arc. This is a list of the favorite songs of Patricia "Trick" Tillinghast, my drummer/dancer/fencer/champion character from "Grey Angels," a Buffy/Angel RPG campaign. It's still very much a work in progress. (For additional context, see my past blog posts about Trick--particularly here and here.)

As of the time of this posting, the playlist includes (in no particular order):

Meredith Brooks - Bitch
P!nk - F**king Perfect
P!nk - Try
P!nk - Just Like Fire
P!nk - Raise Your Glass
Queen - Somebody to Love
Queen - We Are the Champions
The Bangles - Eternal Flame
Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You)
Sara Bareilles - Brave
Colbie Caillat - Bubbly
Colbie Caillat - Fallin’ For You
Taylor Swift- Shake It Off
Taylor Swift - Delicate
Rachel Platten - Fight Song
The Sweet - Ballroom Blitz
Christina Aguilera, Lil' Kim, Mya, Pink - Lady Marmalade
Mark Ronson (feat. Bruno Mars) - Uptown Funk
The White Stripes - Seven Nation Army
Des’ree - You Gotta Be
Adele - Rolling in the Deep
Natasha Bedingfield - Unwritten
Walk the Moon - Shut Up and Dance
Lady Gaga - The Edge of Glory
Rush [Neil Peart solo] - Der Trommler

And yes, that's a lot of P!nk tracks! Patricia's romantic history has been a soap opera roller coaster, so P!nk's repertoire strikes a very deep chord with her, but I've strictly limited myself to a few of her more positive songs for this list. Trick is a hopeless romantic, but she's becoming more careful and deliberate about her relationships. What worked during her high school and college years is no longer cutting it now that she's hit her 30's and has a much better sense of who she is and what she actually wants out of life. Of course, her list of favorites still heavily features tracks chosen simply because they're fun.

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UPDATE 4/30/2020: The following tracks have been added to the playlist since the original list above was created:

Fatboy Slim - Weapon of Choice
The B-52’s - Love Shack
Portugal. The Man - Feel It Still
Sia - Cheap Thrills
Sia - Unstoppable
David Guetta, ft. Sia - Titanium
Pharrell Williams - Happy
The Black Eyed Peas - I Gotta Feeling
Lenny Kravitz - Fly Away
Vanessa Carlton - A Thousand Miles
Shania Twain - Man! I Feel Like a Woman
WAR*HALL - All This Power [theme song for Grey Angels Season 4]
Rachel Platten - Stand By You
HAIM - Little of Your Love

Smash Mouth - All Star

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UPDATE 6/9/2020: More new tracks since the last update:

Alicia Keys - Girl on Fire
k.d. lang - Constant Craving
Coldplay - Viva La Vida
ABBA - Dancing Queen
Jason Mraz - I'm Yours
Lenny Kravitz- Are You Gonna Go My Way
Colbie Caillat - Brighter Than the Sun
Journey - Don't Stop Believin'
Daft Punk - Get Lucky
Hayley Kiyoko - Girls Like Girls
The Greatest Showman Cast - This Is Me
Mary Lambert - She Keeps Me Warm
The Veronicas - Take Me On the Floor
Tegan and Sara - Closer
Savage Garden - I Want You
The Hu (feat. Lzzy Hale) - Song of Women
Sixpence None the Richer - There She Goes

Sixpence None the Richer - Kiss Me

Sara Bareilles - I Choose You

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UPDATE 8/11/2020: More new tracks since the last update (which brings the total to 70):

Sia - Alive

Journey - Any Way You Want It

Heart - Crazy on You

Janelle Monae - Make Me Feel

Clean Bandit (feat. Jess Glynne) - Rather Be

Ed Sheeran - Shape of You

Calvin Harris (feat. Rihanna) - This is What You Came For

Zara Larsson, MNEK - Never Forget You

Bruno Mars - Locked Out of Heaven

Lady Gaga - You and I

Evanescence - My Heart is Broken

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UPDATE 8/20/2020: This is a much longer update than most, because I found an older version of my "Trick's Picks" playlist, so have now added most of those songs here. Now up to 106!

Backstreet Boys - Larger Than Life

Taylor Swift - Blank Space

Adam Lambert - Better Than I Know Myself

Angel & The MamboKats - Black Mambo (Mambero Mix)

Blue Man Group - Drumbone

Christina Aguilera - Genie in a Bottle

Donna Summer - Hot Stuff (12" Version)

ES Posthumus - Unstoppable

Fine Young Cannibals - Good Thing

Franka Potente - Believe

George Michael - Faith

Hadouken! - Levitate

INXS - Need You Tonight

Jefferson Airplane - Somebody to Love

Jessie J - Domino

John Legend - All of Me

Marvin Gaye - Sexual Healing

Peter Gabriel - In Your Eyes

The Pussycat Dolls (feat. Snoop Dogg) - Buttons

Ricky Martin - She Bangs

Roisin Murphy - Ramalama (Bang Bang)

Roisin Murphy - Night of the Dancing Flame

Sinead O'Connor - Nothing Compares 2U

Sting - If I Ever Lose My Faith in You

They Might Be Giants - S-E-X-X-Y

Trinket - Boom

The Troggs - Wild Thing

Anna Kendrick - Cups

Survivor - Eye of the Tiger

The Wallflowers - Heroes

Eurythmics (feat. Aretha Franklin) - Sisters Are Doin' It for Themselves

The Who - Who Are You

The Who - Won't Get Fooled Again

Natalie Cole - Wild Women Do

Bjork - Hunter

Sophie P. Hawkins - Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover

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UPDATE 2/12/2021: A new version of the playlist has been posted here, and will be updated there going forward.

Strongholds & Followers and Freeport

Last summer, I reviewed Matt Colville's Stronghold & Followers sourcebook for D&D 5E. This time, I'll be looking at how to use this new material in a Freeport campaign.

First of all, Freeport is a very highly detailed city that already contains many competing organizations with established strongholds. Any attempt to create a new stronghold in the Serpent's Teeth, much less within Freeport's own city walls, will be sure to experience resistance from the current powers that be. Players and DMs should not let that discourage them from using the stronghold rules--intrigue and political scheming are hallmarks of the City of Adventure, after all! And some bold adventurer is behind the founding of most of the city's iconic organizations, from the Syndicate to the Wizard's Guild to the office of Sea Lord itself. The PCs are just the latest in a long history of ambitious new arrivals, who lack the advantages jealously guarded by the members of the status quo.

In a Freeport campaign, the stronghold rules can also be useful for detailing NPC organizations, from competing guilds to military schools to pirate fleets. Even if the PCs never establish a formal base of operations, NPCs with sufficient political clout will reap the benefits of maintaining their own strongholds: followers to pit against the PCs, easier access to low-level magic items, and improved class features. (On the other hand, when faced with such resourceful enemies, the PCs may eventually seek how to gain those rewards for themselves!)

Most of the rules in S&F can be used as-is in most campaigns, but a few options deserve specific call-outs for Freeport.

The Keep: The barbarian camp option is not appropriate within the Serpent's Teeth, except when they are invading one of the settlements here (as in the northern barbarian invasion during Black Sails Over Freeport). However, this stronghold type is the norm in the more savage parts of the Continent, such as Druzhdin and the Bone Lands.

In contrast, the pirate ship variant is perfectly suited to Freeport. The Mass Combat rules can be adapted for use for sea battles between enemy ships.

The Tower: The Wizard's Guild is the epitome of this type of stronghold, while Gitch's rickety tower in Bloodsalt represents the most humble possible version.

The Temple: Freeport is littered with this type of stronghold, but not every shrine in the Temple District qualifies. (The Fool's Market as a whole might--or it might count as an establishment?--but the individual spaces within it would not.) Naturally, any new temple established within Freeport will face intense scrutiny from other faiths, who may simply be jealous of competition or who might be on the watch for legitimate threats to crusade against.

The druid's grove alternate would be appropriate to establish outside the city, in the jungles of A'Val or elsewhere in the Serpent's Teeth.

The Establishment: This type of stronghold might be the easiest to establish within the city, because Freeport is a city that thrives on commerce and trade. The covert side of the organization will need to be wary of established criminal gangs, who have well-defined territories within the city's districts.

Followers: The stat blocks for retainers are highly abbreviated, since they have a reduced role in combat. However, they can be useful starting points for creating NPC allies and enemies for Freeport adventures, apart from the stronghold rules. Likewise, the sample artisan profiles can be used as-is or as inspiration for new background characters.

The Siege of Castle Rend: This adventure is clearly not appropriate for the Serpent's Teeth. However, it could be used more or less as written in many places on the Continent. The adventure also presents many new stat blocks for orcs, which could add some variety to the inhabitants of Bloodsalt.

New Monsters: This chapter is a rich resource for any 5E game. See below for further discussion.

New Items: The codices are thematically appropriate for Freeport, given the setting's strong Lovecraftian element. However, they require attunement within a stronghold, so should be ignored if the stronghold rules are not being used.

New Monsters

This chapter can be used with any 5E campaign, whether or not the GM includes the stronghold and concordance rules. These creatures are grouped into various extraplanar factions based on the beings' origins and agenda.

Demons and devils are well represented in the Monster Manual, so only a few new fiends are needed to round out the servitors chart in the temple rules.

The remaining factions include:

• The Celestial Court: Angelic beings who (in Freeport's default D&D cosmology, at least) hail from the outer planes of good. These beings are the natural allies of pure-hearted crusaders against demons, devils, and other evils.
• The Court of All Flesh: Chaotic aberrations. "Primordius" is roughly cognate to Limbo, but the Changing Ones are not affiliated with the slaadi or other denizens of that plane. (Slaadi have never been Open Game Content, so Colville had to invent new servitors for this niche.) In a Freeport campaign, this court might have ties to realms corrupted by the Unspeakable One, but are not inherently evil themselves.
• The Court of Arcadia: Chaotic fey (and one dragon), appropriate to the fairy realms (and some elven woods). These are likely to be popular among clerics from Rolland on the Continent, but apart from the oleander dragon, the Court of Arcadia are unlikely to have anything in common with the more reptilian fey native to the Serpent's Teeth.
• The Court of Elements: Neutral elementals, ruled by the Lady of Brass. In a Freeport campaign, may be the noble efreeti ruler of the City of Brass, or the sovereign over all of the ruling class of genies from all four elemental planes.
• Gemstone Dragons: These neutral dragons are the one group of new monsters that were not designed for use as extraplanar servitors. Instead, they form a third category of dragons between the more extreme alignments of the metallic and chromatic species. Gemstone dragons have psionic abilities rather than the usual magical powers of dragons. A limited, self-contained psionics system is presented to support these creatures. This section also includes a gemstone variant for dragonborn (who comprise the only method presented in this book for accessing those psionic powers as a PC). In a Freeport campaign, gemstone dragons might have connections to, or secret forgotten knowledge of, the ancient civilization of Valossa, or its serpent god Yig.
• The Inexorables: Lawful constructs that embody the plane of pure law (called "Axiom" here, which could be considered the same as Mechanus in the default D&D cosmology). They presumably operate independently from the modrons.

For my past columns about using D&D Fifth Edition sourcebooks with Freeport: The City of Adventure, see the Freeport 5E Index.