Campus Mischief

by Corkboards & Curiosities

Concept
Thorsley College is a private liberal arts university nested in the
New Hampshire countryside. Remote from the big city, the campus
is surrounded by greenery in which students love to hike, jog, or
share cheap beers around the bonfire.
Recently however, bizarre incidents have taken place: com-
puter equipment routinely gets stolen from the labs, libraries and
dorms. More importantly, the frat boys from the Burke dorm house
have become the targets of dangerous sabotage that they no longer
believe to be accidents.
The culprits are a small group of Brownies that have taken a
liking to Adela Barrios, a hardworking computer science freshman,
and decided to help her out. Not having evolved with the times,
they have no real understanding of her needs. Their “help” so far
has mostly consisted in using their invisibility to steal electronics
for her, and getting revenge on the loud partiers of her dorm who
prevent her from studying peacefully.

1
 HOOK
Posted anonymously under the title “PROOF THAT THORS-
LEY IS HAUNTED”, a video has gone viral online, to the point
of becoming a meme. Recorded from a cheap nanny cam in one
of Thorsley College’s computer science labs, it shows a keyboard
magically floating up in the air and out of the room in the middle
of the night.
Most call it a fake, but it has caused some bad press for Thors-
ley College. The hunters may hear of the video and decide to inves-
tigate on their own. Alternatively, they are contacted by the univer-
sity’s administration to quickly and discreetly exorcise whatever is
haunting them, so that admissions stops getting calls about it.

Countdown
Day Another computer is stolen from the school, a
very expensive one.

Shadows After finding it, Adela snaps and lashes out at

her dorm mates. The Brownies decide to punish
the Burke house residents for upsetting her.

Sunset The Brownies sabotage the Burke housing

facilities, and some students get mildly injured.
Led by Graham, they blame Adela for it, and the
Brownies decide to take drastic measures.

Dusk The Brownies lure a drunken Graham into the

woods, in which he magically gets lost.

Nightfall Graham dies. His corpse is found at the edge of

the woods. His body seems to have been in the
wilderness much longer than he was missing.

Midnight More frat boys go missing, lost in the woods.

Thorsley College is forced to close down and
Adela transfers. The Brownies follow her to her
new college, where this cycle will repeat itself.

2
Thorsley's Brownies
Monster: executioner (motivation: to punish the guilty)

Brownies are mostly friendly spirits who attach themselves to the

households of hardworking individuals and help with chores. Fig,
Irtam and Mud, a small group of them living in the mystical Woods
surrounding the school, decided to provide their help to Adela Bar-
rios. Remaining invisible most of the time, they have not made
their presence known and she has no idea that they exist.
Their assistance has been the opposite of helpful. Seeing that
Adela spends a lot of time on her computer, they deduced that she
likes computers, and stole some tech to drop it in her dorm room.
Seeing that the loud parties downstairs annoy her when she’s study-
ing, they decided to sabotage and punish the guilty frat boys.

Powers:
• Invisible: The Brownies can remain invisible as long as they wish.
• Wood Dwellers: The Brownies decide when the Woods become a Maze.

Attacks: Bite 1 harm, intimate. (with stolen pots, billiards cue sticks and
baseball bats: 1 harm, hand.)

Armour: none, but should the Brownies decide to gear up with stolen goods
such as football protective equipment, it becomes 2.

Harm capacity: 4

Weaknesses:
• Sweet tooth: The Brownies struggle to resist sweet treats, which can
easily be used as bait, and temporarily intoxicate them, disabling their
invisibility.
• Loyal helpers: The Brownies are extremely loyal to the person they have
chosen to help (in this case, Adela). They are easily influenced in regards
to her, for better or worse.

3
 Adela

Barrios
Bystander: Innocent (motivation: to do the right thing)

A driven freshman on a competitive computer science scholar-

ship, who was unfortunately assigned to the loud Burke dorm.
The Brownies decided to help. The first signs of strangeness were
harmless, with her dorm room tidied up in her absence, but quickly
escalated to stolen computers turning up on the bed. Unaware of
the Brownies’ existence, Adela believes she is going insane from
the stress and expectations of college, or that someone is trying to
sabotage her scholarship. She has not told anyone.

Bennett

SIM
Bystander: Witness (motivation: to reveal information)

A loveable pothead, Bennett spends most of his time watching in-

die movies or peacefully enjoying his high. He lives on the same
floor as Adela, and has witnessed one of the Brownies dropping his
invisibility after tasting one of his fresh baked edibles. However,
to most of the students on campus, it’s hard to believe anything the
go-to shrooms guy says.

Graham Olson

Bystander: Victim (motivation: to put himself in danger)

Great athlete, life of the party, and the appointed “leader” of his frat
boy-ish group, Graham has been the Brownies’ main target. Be-
hind the obnoxiously loud facade, he is kind and supportive to his
friends and the more introverted students. His stubborn attempts to
get Adela out of her shell have however led to tensions.

4
Jay

Malik
Bystander: Detective (motivation: to rule out explanations)

A student with a passion for everything conspiracies and super-

natural, Jay taped the video that went viral. She will be quick to
notice a group of strangers on campus, getting very excited about
the presence of monster hunters. Though most of her “research” on
the supernatural comes from dubious online forums, she knows a
lot about the school, and can be a good guide.

Computer

science study lab
Location: Hub (motivation: to reveal information)

This is where the video was captured. Computers and other bits of
equipment are missing, their cables forgotten or torn in the process.
Blame the Brownies’ poor understanding of technology: they don’t
know what a cable is, let alone that it shouldn’t be ripped apart.

The

Burke house common room
Location: Crossroads (motivation: to bring people together)

The Burke House common room is rarely deserted. Leftover red

cups from beer pong lie on the floor and the couches are deep-
ly stained. Above the fireplace, a framed picture hangs proudly,
showing the dorm’s residents on move in day.

5
 Adela's

Room
Location: Hub (motivation: to reveal information)

This room is exposed to all the noise from the common room be-
low, and to the smell of pot wafting from the corridor. Behind the
seemingly normal look of this college dorm room, a few clues can
be gathered, like a bunch of stolen equipment stashed under the
bed, or an internet history asking “how to know if I’m insane”.

The

Woods
Location: Den (motivation: to harbor monsters)

When they are not on campus, Fig, Irtam and Mud dwell in the
woods that surround the college. If the Brownies decide so, the
location can also become a Maze, in which they lure unsuspecting
frat boys.
The Woods can then reshape itself, and is located outside time,
where nightfall or dawn can come as it wishes. Once in, it is easy
to get lost, separated, or worse. Cell phones, GPS devices and other
similar equipment mislead with unsettling static whispers, or cease
to function entirely.