Melody, the Constructed (Vigil Backstage)

Meet Melody: hipster, ambivert, 200 year-old construct. Having escaped her creator, this well-meaning café owner has a tendency to come apart at the seams.

Join Helen as she fills in Melody's character sheet with help from compère Matt and fellow hunters Vikki and Chris.

Programme notes

This production contains mild body horror, fantasy violence - including gun violence - and abusive relationship dynamics.

Our promo this episode is for A Rendezvous with Destiny, an actual play podcast of Onyx Path's Scion, set in a fictionalised Washington, DC.

Dramatis personae and other definitions

Jess Butterworth: a twenty-something shift worker, Sherrydown born and bred. While working the tarot tent at Amazement Park, she was approached by Kit, a being claiming to be her spirit guide.

Melody: the owner of Melodies, the cosy cafe and vinyl shop on Market Street. Melody is an ageless patchwork person animated by music, who fled her creator ages ago and has owned a music shop on this spot ever since.

Calistarius Softbinding: a local horror writer with a cult following, who sponsored the construction of a whole new wing of Sherrydown’s library. Calistarius Softbinding is a nom de plume.

Ed Kincaid: a once promising, now disgraced MI5 agent assigned to investigate the more … esoteric threats reported to the national security hotline.

Department of Omissions (DO, DoOm): The UK government department tasked with preventing harm to citizens from supernatural phenomena. Severely defunded under Tory austerity policies and currently prioritising major urban population centres.

Sherrydown, Brackshire: A historic English market town. One of the first towns to lose its DoOm office.

Omission effect: The rejection of certain beings and phenomena by long-term memory. Can be suppressed by concentration, mnemonic techniques, hypnosis, trauma, or the light of the full moon.

Credits

COMPERE: Matt Boothman

STARRING:

  • Ellen Gould as Jess Butterworth, the Spooky

  • Helen Stratton as Melody, the Constructed

  • Chris Buxey as Calistarius Softbinding, the Expert

  • Chris MacLennan as Ed Kincaid, the Professional

ROLEPLAYING GAME SYSTEM: Monster of the Week, designed by Michael Sands

MUSIC BY: Alexander Pankhurst

SOUND DESIGN BY: Natalie Winter

EDITED AND PRODUCED BY: Matt Boothman

Find us

On Twitter @MerelyRoleplay

On Instagram @MerelyRoleplayers

On Facebook at Merely Roleplayers

www.MerelyRoleplayers.com