From Changeling Venue

Seeming	Fairest Muse
Court	Winter Court ••••
Freehold
Player	Derek Burrow

Contents 1 Overview 2 Character Information 2.1 Known History 2.2 Motley 2.3 Allies 2.4 Enemies 2.5 Looking For Ties 2.6 Character Inspirations 2.6.1 Literature 2.6.2 Television & Movies 2.6.3 Real Life and Mythology 2.7 Soundtrack 2.8 Quotes 2.8.1 Adelaide 2.8.2 Others 2.9 Rumors

Overview

Alias(es): Adelaide Kincaid, Simon Kingmaker, Silas MacArthur, Nick Diablos, The Man at the Crossroads

Real Name: Simon Kingsbury

Age: 78/35

Concept: Soulless Bluesman

Entitlement: The Lost Pantheon (hopefully)

Keeper: The Devil

Physical description: Adelaide's mask is unremarkable. His age is somewhat indeterminate, somewhere between his 30s and his 60s, with a full head of black hair set above a weathered face and the most remarkable green eyes that most people have seen. He tends to wear black jeans, white shirts, and cheap black suit jackets, occasionally accompanied by a fedora of one sort or another. His mask is surprisingly similar. His skin is quite pale, but is free of the creases and wrinkles of his mask. His fingers are perhaps a bit more dexterous, flecks of gold worn into them by playing that gold guitar her carries, and look ever so slightly frost bitten. Its his eyes and his shadow that are the true tells, however. His irises glow a burning copper, and his shadow is...indescribable, showing hints of wings, tails, tentacles, horns, claws, breasts, phalluses, and an inhuman physique to accommodate them all. They say he has the Devil's own shadow, as a mark of his Keeper's providence. His touch brings the true power of his Mantle to the surface, as any object touched by his hands seems to take on an eerie cold aura of perfection and value, as if his merest touch could make a thing more valuable than it already was.

Relevant Mechanics:

Character Livejournal: Contracts & Crossroads

Character Information

Known History

Basic Timeline:

• 1930: Born near Jackson, TN as Simon Kingsbury.
• 1945: Simon's father dies in the Pacific. When his father's military life insurance runs out, Simon begins playing the blues in local bars in order to make ends meet.
• 1951: Simon, convinced that he is one of the best blues players in the country, follows the legend of Robert Johnson and summons up the Devil at a crossroads 13 miles outside of town. The Devil answers, and appears as a man in an immaculate suit and hat, his shadow twisting and roiling in a pandaemonic maelstrom. The Devil offers Simon his solid gold guitar, and all his talent, if Simon can best him in a duel of music. Simon plays, and plays...but its obvious that he is only a mediocre player at best. Talented, but an amateur...and as he reaches the climax of his song, one of the strings of his guitar snaps, slicing his hand open. He can't maintain a hold on the guitar with the blood...and the Devil claims his soul with a final flourish of that gold guitar.
• The Hedge: The Devil reveals himself as one of the Gentry, and drags Simon across the Hedge and into his personal domain of Hell; a world full of crossroads and cornfields, where all roads lead to a single, beaten road house where lost souls drown their sorrows in a never ending flow of cheap whiskey and beer. But the Devil wants more residents for his roadhouse, and so he cuts Simon a final deal: Simon will travel into the world in the Devil's place, making deals, and dragging souls back to Hell so the Devil can survive off their sorrow and pain.
• 1951-1972: Simon spends over twenty years travelling the highways and byways of North America, bearing the Devil's solid gold guitar and infused with the Devil's musical abilities, playing prospective master musicians and making deals so that others can go on to become the greatest ever. He also engineers their destruction, claiming their souls to return to the Devil to one day buy off his bond. One hot summer night in 1972, however, Simon arrives at a summoning to find that the man who called him up had changed his mind, and left. Simon finally decides that enough is enough...and sets off away from the crossroads, the Devil's guitar on his back. For some reason, the Devil has never tried to follow him...at least, not in a way that he has noticed. He went underground with the Winter Court, hiding himself away behind veils of ice and frost.

Current Activities:

Merit Details:

Background:

Motley

Allies

Enemies

Looking For Ties

• People whose "souls" I bought and sent to the Devil
• Other people who made deals with the Devil
• People who may have benefited, at least initially, from one of Adelaide's bargains
• Lost Pantheon allies or adversaries

Character Inspirations

Literature

• "The Devil and Tom Walker" (Washington Irving)- Old Scratch
• "The Devil and Daniel Webster" (Stephen Vincent Benét)- Mr. Scratch
• "Faust" (Goethe)- Mephistopheles
• "The Damnation Game" (Clive Barker)- Mamoulian
• "Spirits in the Wires" (Charles de Lint)- Robert Lonnie
• "Neverwhere" (Neil Gaiman)- The Marquis de Carabas

Television & Movies

• "Supernatural"- The Crossroads Demon (as played by Jeannette Sousa, Ona Grauer, and Sandra McCoy)
• "Brimstone"- The Devil (as played by John Glover)
• "The Witches of Eastwick"- Darryl van Horne (as played by Jack Nicholson)

Real Life and Mythology

• Robert Johnson (specifically the story of trading his soul to play the blues)
• Phineas Taylor "P.T." Barnum
• Loki
• The Devil/Satan
• Kalfu

Soundtrack

• "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (The Charlie Daniels Band)
• "The Devil Came Back to Georgia" (The Charlie Daniels Band with Johnny Cash)
• "To Beat the Devil" (Kris Kristofferson)
• "Sympathy for the Devil" (The Rolling Stones)
• "Spanish Train" (Chris De Burgh)
• "When You're Evil" (Voltaire)
• "The Man Comes Around" (Johnny Cash)
• "Sixteen Tons" (Tennessee Ernie Ford)
• "Bad Moon Rising" (Creedence Clearwater Revival)
• "Crossroad Blues" (Robert Johnson)
• "Hellhounds on my Trail" (Robert Johnson)
• "Back in Black" (AC/DC)
• "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" (The Band)

Quotes

Adelaide

• "A man can't beat the Devil at his own game, son. Best you gonna do is hope to tie. Or pray to die. 'Cause either one is better than losin'."
• "It was not *my* doing that brought you to the Devil's hands. The sin of pride was what did you in. Let that be a lesson...and count yourself lucky to have escaped at all."

Others

Rumors

• Adelaide's current powerbase is rooted in a local Toronto television star. Just which one is a matter of some debate...but whoever it is, they're handing him quite a bit of money on the side.
• Adelaide has maintained his relative youth not just by the power of the Wyrd, but by a series of powerful pledges with mortals that feed him some of their life in exchange for power and prestige.