Since I’m counting down the days to my Thanksgaming session of the Ghost Punchers RPG this week, I’ve decided to share some of the player characters who will be dishing out spectral violence on Saturday. We’ve already met Monica Harper. Today, let’s meet some of her team.
Eva Valdez
Private investigator Eva Valdez thought she’d seen it all. Murder, corruption, a thousand different types of abuse—she’d seen so much evil while serving on the police force that it drove her to private practice. Investigating cheating spouses and insurance fraud offered lower stakes, but left fewer scars on her soul.
Two years ago, Eva realized she hadn’t seen everything the world had to offer. She was hired by a woman whose ex-husband was stalking her. He would sneak into the woman’s house while she was out, trash the place, and scrawl threatening messages on the walls. When Eva dug into the case, however, she discovered that the ex-husband had been dead for months. Nevertheless, she staked out her client’s house and watched as invisible hands tore up photo albums and smashed the good china. Eva confronted the ghost. She threatened him with an exorcist, and convinced him to leave his ex-wife in peace.
Exhilarated (and well-paid) by her victory, Eva studied ghosts and how to fight them. She expanded her services to include “weird” cases such as hauntings. Such cases are often more dangerous than normal, so she charges double. Her clients don’t seem to mind.
Business has been slow this season, so when Monica Harper—some trust fund brat dabbling in ghost-hunting—offered her a contract, Eva accepted. She’s not much of a team player, but for the right price and a just cause, she’ll wear the jersey. At least, until business picks up again.
Tyler and Tamika Sloane
Tyler and Tamika Sloane are twins. They grew up deep in the mountains, cut off from virtually everyone but their mother Eunice. Their whole lives, their mother has told them about the spirits that plague humanity, how to see them, and how to fight them. By the time they were 10, and forced by the government woman in the gray suit to go to public school, the two had seen their share of ghosts, and even fought one or two.
School was hard. The two worked to fit in, and even made friends. But when they told those friends about their experiences with the supernatural, the friends told their parents, and within six weeks the twins were in foster care and their mother was in jail for child endangerment. A year later, she was committed to a psychiatric facility. Tyler and Tamika became wards of the state.
Today, the twins are 22 and trying to find their place in the world. Their mother is out of the facility and under their care, but she’s not the woman she used to be. She was damaged in the psyche ward. She’s weak and forgetful and needs her children to look after her.
Tamika has learned to use her ghost-hunting abilities, along with some con artistry, to make a profit from both those who are haunted and those who are merely gullible. She uses the money to support her mother… and her brother.
Tyler took to drinking before dropping out of high school. He still drinks, but has his mother to take care of, so he keeps it under control while he helps his sister fight her clients’ ghosts for money. Tamika says he has a lot of anger and guilt issues. Tyler says she’s lucky she’s his sister or he’d smack her.
Normally, the twins wouldn’t have anything to do with a rich bimbo like Monica Harper. But when she talked about ghosts, she knew what she was talking about. And when she handed them an envelope of cash, she showed that she meant business. Mama still wouldn’t approve of her, but maybe Monica wasn’t such a bimbo after all.
