300 points
(Note: starred* items are results of failed
aging rolls. If these points aren’t
supposed to be taken, point value is 335)
Age: 125;
physiologically 110, looks about 80. 5’10”,
170 lbs; a baseline human male, with
skin deeply tanned and wrinkled from years spent outdoors.
Thinning white hair, brown eyes. Lower
right leg heavily scarred, slightly bowed. Tattoos:
“Molon Labe” on inside right forearm, dotted “Cut Here” line
below right
knee, "Spacing Guild" logo (from David Lynch's Dune movie) on
outer left forearm. Ususally wears blue
jeans and t-shirts around farm, or dark suits at more formal events -
but can
be encountered in homemade buckskins during the fall, or 19th
century
garb when Old West re-enacting.
Attributes
<5>: ST 8 [-15*] DX 9 [-10*] IQ 13
[30] HT 10 [0] Spd/MV 5/3
Advantages
<293>: Ally (K-10 Postcanine “Klaus,”
100 pts, 9-) [5]; Ally: Programmed (Snakebot/NAI-6 “the Rooster,” 450
pts, 6-)
[20]; Ally: Programmed (Cyberdoc/NAI-8 “Doctor Wu,” 450 pts, 15-) [120]; Ally: Programmed (Cyberdoll/Clockwork Souls
Custom/NAI-6 “Peg,” 250 pts, 15-) [60]; Ally: Programmed
(VII/NAI-5/GH-L
Nightingale “Bhodisattva,” 20 pts, 15-) [6]; Ally Group: Programmed
(Hugin
drone group “Babylon Sisters,” 5 drones, 45 pts each, 9-) [6]; Contacts
(various; local legal community, re-enactors, members of Project:
Bootstrap,
the Human Survival Project, the Archive Project) [20]; Favor (owed by
the crew
of the Gypsy Angel iceteroid freighter H.S. Thompson) [1];
Status 2 (1
level free from wealth) [5]; Wealth: Filthy Rich [50]
Biomods (all
permanent) <21>: Artery Cleaners;
Boosted Heart [9]; Carcinophages [3]; DNA Repair [4]; Immune Machines
[5]; Pore
Cleaners; Retinal Enhancement (to correct Bad Sight); Tooth Cleaners
Disadvantages
<-105>: Age (110) [-60]; Bad
Temper [-10]; Compulsive Behavior (reading) [-5]; Hard of Hearing
(mitigator -
listens to his VII) [-5*]; Hidebound [-5*]; Loner [-5], OPH (Smartass,
-1
reaction) [-5]; Reduced Move (-1) [-5]; Sense of Duty (the Farm) [-5]
Quirks
<-5>: Enjoys anachronisms (so long as
they aren’t in books or movies); wants to be as self-sufficient and
private as
possible; won’t own an SAI, LAI or bioroid, and is even polite to his
NAIs;
obsessed with rights and freedom issues; always armed if possible,
polite, and
legal to do so.
Skills
<86>: Administration-14 [4]; Agronomy (TL
7)-14 [4]; Agronomy (TL 8)-13 [2]; Agronomy (TL 9)-13 [2]; Appreciate
Beauty
(food & drink)-10/16 [1]; Armoury (TL 0)(aka Flint Knapping)-12
[1];
Astronomy (TL 7)-11 [1]; Astronomy (TL 9)-12 [2]; Bard-14 [4]; Black
Powder
Weapons (Flintlock Rifle)(TL 5)-11 [1]; Black Powder Weapons (Caplock
Revolver)(TL 5)-11 [1]; Bow-8 [2]; Cooking-14 [2]; Detect Lies-14 [6];
Distilling-12 [1]; Fast-Draw (pistol, cross-draw, shoulder holster)-10
[2];
Fencing-8 [1]; Fishing-12 [½]; Guns (Pistol)(TL 5)-11 [1]; Guns
(Pistol)(TL
6)-12 [2]; Guns (Pistol)(TL 7)-12 [2]; Guns (Pistol)(TL 8)-11 [1]; Guns
(Pistol)(TL 9)-11 [1]; Guns: Sport (Pistol)(TL 5)-13 [4]; Guns
(Rifle)(TL 5)-11
[1]; Guns (Rifle)(TL 6)-12 [2]; Guns (Rifle)(TL 7)-10 [½]; Guns
(Rifle)(TL
9)-11 [1]; History-12 [2]; Holdout-11 [½]; Law (criminal)-15/21 [8];
Leatherworking-13 [1]; Memetics-10 [1]; Naturalist-12 [2]; Musical
Instrument (Banjo)-10
[½]; Musical Instrument (Saxophone)-10 [½]; Research-16 [8];
Savoir-Faire-15
[0]; Savoir-Faire (Courtroom)-14 [2]; SCUBA (TL 7)-11 [½]; Survival
(Woodlands)-13 [2]; Tracking-12 [1]; Writing-14 [4]
Languages
<5>: English (native)-15 [2];
German-11 [½]; Japanese-11 [½]; Spanish-13 [2]
Implants: VII
with input jack; Upslink; Downslink
Equipment:
varies wildly. But usually carrying
something to read, some type of knife, a
concealed weapon, a hip flask (rarely filled with the same thing twice
in a row),
and a small snack. The knife can
range
from a pocketknife to a skinning knife, but Coble has no idea how to
use one in
a fight - knives are tools, as far as he’s concerned. The concealed
weapon will
usually be anachronistic to his clothing: a caplock 1851 Navy Colt when
dressed
in his modern suits, a 2100-vintage 4mm pistol as backup while dressed
for the
Old West reenactments he still enjoys.
While walking around on the farm, he will usually be carrying or
within
a few steps of some sort of rifle - which could be anything from a
Carolina
flintlock to a 15mm recoilless.
Whatever he carries is typically loaded with homing bullets; if
the
weapon’s RoF is higher than 1, the bullets usually have the gestalt
upgrade as
well.
When
he has to leave the farm - which is less and less often, these days -
his
conservative dark suits are made from arachnoweave armor. While in his
buckskinner mode, Coble carries only period authentic gear and
dismisses all of
his entourage except his VII and his cyberdoll nurse. He
is much less strict when he’s Old West
re-enacting, though. His appearance
will be that of a frontier judge circa 1882, but he’s likely to be
carrying any
number of unobtrusive modern gadgets in the pockets of his vest or
frock
coat. Coble is very aware that the
march of technology and his increasing age mean that if any threat on
his
safety is made, most of the protective work will be done by his robots;
but
better safe than sorry, right?
Story: Ken
Coble was born in Graham, North Carolina
and after a fairly uneventfuly early life he became a lawyer. He was relatively successful in private
practice as an attorney for many years, and in his late sixties he
became a
judge, a position he held through 2073, when he turned 98.
Although most of his legal practice and his
life on the bench was fairly standard, he did earn his place as a
footnote in
legal history as the judge who presided over the trial of Daniel P.
Jordan. Jordan, as many might remember,
was one of the first ghosted people in North Carolina; he was also the
billionaire who spent almost all of his fortune creating a live-action
version
of the 20th century anime Urotsukidoiji: Legend of the
Overfiend. It was staged using
‘actors’ who were
enslaved bioroids, necroshells of murdered people, several people
involuntarily
given puppeteer implants, and victims of simple kidnapping and coercion. These subjects were then transformed with
biosculpting surgery and prosthetics, then forced to go through the
actions of
the movie. Jordan’s arrest and trial
created a media circus; nobody was surprised when the jury handed down
a guilty
verdict and Jordan was sentenced to death by erasure of all extant
copies. When the penalty phase was over,
Judge Coble
walked out of the courthouse and called in his resignation the next
day,
devoting all of his time to the family farm.
Three years later, he had himself placed in nanostasis. He has only been “up” for 9 of the last 24
years, never being under more than 5 years at a time.
Coble is waiting for the cellular rejuvenation process to get a
little safer before he rolls the dice and tries it.
He is unwilling to be uploaded, since he feels that while the
resultant ghost will be somebody very much like the original, there
will be no
continuity of consciousness. Because of
this, his advance medical directives state that he is only to be
uploaded if
there is no other chance to save his life.
Hopefully they’ll work out that ‘fatal brain damage’ bug in the
rejuve
process before it comes to all that. In
the meantime, Coble continues to expand and farm the family homestead,
assisted
by an entourage of NAIs, several dozen agricultural microbot swarms and
a K-10
postcanine. Judge C. loosely subscibes
to several memes: colonialism, Green System, highly modified Christian
Hyperevolutionism, minarchism, pan-sapient rights, pantropy,
survivalism,
morphological freedom and Transhumanism, among others.
Coble keeps up his re-enactment interests
and does a little research on and writing about various evolving areas
of the
law. He is very attached to the farm,
and there isn’t much that could convince him to leave it permanently. However, he is interested in the Human
Survival Project, and is working with a proposed Gypsy Angel/Green
Duncanite
Oort Cloud expedition called Project: Bootstrap. In
return for some financial backing, Bootstrap has agreed to
accept transmission of a copy of Coble’s mind state if he ever is
uploaded
(another copy would stay at the farm, making Coble a potential secret
xoxer).
Coble
loves his remaining family, but is still something of a cranky old man. Age and years of living alone (first wife
amicably divorced, second wife killed in a heavy-weather strengthened
hurricane) have done nothing to help his short temper and sharp tongue.
Two of
his children and seven of his grandchildren are still alive. They and a
small
mob of great-grandchildren visit the farm occasionally, but most of the
time
Coble is in the field with no one but his robots. Oddly
enough, though, advances in technology and his odd sense of
hospitality mean that people in the area can enter the land when some
of the
crops are coming in, so long as they consent to limitations posted in
v-tags
and announced by the robots if the erstwhile visitors don‘t have
augmented
reality gear. If they follow the
agreement (don‘t litter, don‘t camp out more than one night, etc.),
they can
pick small amounts of whatever produce is in season, fish in certain of
the
ponds, gather chicken and moa eggs, and so on.
However, this “standing invitation” only applies to the outlying
acreage
that Coble has steadily been accruing.
The original homestead is vehemently off-limits to all but
invited
guests. Those who push either boundary
will be confronted by robots armed with nonlethal weapons who will
occupy their
time until the local constabulary arrives…
Campaign
Ideas:
Old Man Coble is usually at his farm.
Perhaps he hires the PC’s to find out who has cross-pollinated
his
heirloom crops with genemod plants, ruining a whole season’s seed (he
keeps his
genemod crops in greenhouses to prevent this type of thing). A slightly darker version of Judge C. will
have become disillusioned enough with 2100 society that a few of his
pharm
goats will actually be guerilla goats whose milk can be processed into
a
plastic explosive. The farm’s ‘open
door’ policy will act as cover for occasional visits by a local
Decivilizer
cell procuring explosives, food and a secure place to camp out. PC’s could support or oppose such
actions. Pan-sentient rights activists
might attempt to disrupt his farming or hunting activities, which would
lead to
armed but nonlethal combat with some of his robot assistants. His support of Project: Bootstrap could also
come to light, which could encourage support from pantropic PCs or
opposition
from Deep Preservationists who want to keep humanity from infesting the
Oort
Cloud.