The Campaign Builder's Guild

Quote from: SteerpikeSounds like a rules-light system is the way to go.  I'm perusing Fate Core, although for a one-shot/episodic something even more simplistic may be fine.

You might want to take a look at Fate Accelerated, too. It's even simpler!
Its use of "approaches" instead of skills is pretty neat and well-suited to a game with powerful heroes who are capable in a lot of different spheres-- it matters less what you're actually doing and more how you do it.

I like the sound of that, sparkle.

I like the sound of Pareidolia, Mandrake and Evil Eye, though I also am somewhat tempted to create a character (something like the maggot-worshiping Drunes of Slaine and the rather memorable vermin-demon from the Constantine film).

I'm throwing my hat into the rules-lite category if you ever do run this setting. While I think Mutants & Masterminds is a pretty good system, I dislike it for superhero games because it's so crunchy and threatens to get bogged-down in minutiae. One of the big, appealing possibilities of a diverse and distinctive cast of characters like this is less what they can do but how their different powers, personalities, and personal strategies might play off one another. If presented with a room full of heavily-armed villains, Evil Eye would obviously go for the one perfect killshot on the leader, Abyzou might go the Batman-mindfuck route and have them turn on each other, Miasa would flood the ventilation system with debilitating toxins, and Mollusc would likely opt to eviscerate them hand-to-hand. There's also lots of possibilities with team dynamics and storytelling. While it might be too much to handle, what I think would be really interesting would be a series of mini-missions that together make up a larger campaign, with a constantly-shuffling roster of characters for each.

QuoteWhile it might be too much to handle, what I think would be really interesting would be a series of mini-missions that together make up a larger campaign, with a constantly-shuffling roster of characters for each.

That's exactly the structure I'd envisioned.

Rogues' Gallery

[ic=Voracious]Renowned archaeologist Josiah Blackwood was once the world's leading expert on certain primordial human civilizations from the dawn of human history until he disappeared on an archaeological expedition in the tunnels below St. Lazarus, along with the rest of his team.  The official account – that the disappearance was due to a spelunking accident – was partially correct: such an accident did occur after a minor cave-in trapped Blackwood and his team in the tunnels.  What the newspapers didn't know was that three members of the expedition, including Blackwood, survived the collapse for many days and in fact continued their exploration of the tunnels, unearthing evidence of an ancient, subterranean city beneath the modern metropolis above, fulfilling Blackwood's wildest hopes and confirming suspicions he had long held but hadn't dared advance to the scientific community.  Trapped underground in the ruinous catacombs of a primeval society, the team-members slowly began to starve.  When one of them was killed in a fall while desperately attempting to reach the surface, the other two were faced with a horrific opportunity to survive.  Blackwood's surviving team-mate, unable to cannibalize one of his colleagues, shot himself in the darkness below the city.  Blackwood, alone and terribly hungry and still intent on bringing knowledge of the tunnels to the upper world, forced himself to consume the bodies of his team-members.

While sleeping in the lightless depths of the catacombs, the taste of human blood still on his tongue, Blackwood had a horrible nightmare in which he wandered a snowy waste while fell voices shrieked and gibbered on the wind.  Reaching an icy lake, he looked down upon the surface and saw not his own reflection but a monstrous, fanged creature, gaunt and emaciated, with a skeletal, animalistic visage, tattered lips, and eyes glowing with an awful hunger.  When Blackwood awoke, his belly growled and rumbled, but he was filled with great strength and renewed vitality.  Mustering his energy, Blackwood managed to climb back out of the caverns, but by the time he reached the surface the pain in his stomach was unbearable, and a terrible lust for human flesh filled him.  The first person he saw on the surface – a vagrant wandering the wintry streets of St. Lazarus and begging for change – became his first victim.  But the man's flesh did nothing to sate Blackwood's hunger; it only made it worse.  Now little more than a frenzied beast, Blackwood prowled the streets of St. Lazarus devouring whomever he came across.  With each killing he became more and more bestial, as the Wendigo spirit that had possessed him in the tunnels grew stronger.  Soon no trace of his former identity remained: he appeared as a huge, hairy animal, all fangs and wild hair, emaciated and reeking of carrion.  The Wendigo that was once Blackwood made a lair for itself in an abandoned building and began a string of serial killings that plunged the city into terror.

When the Tenebrae tracked the Wendigo to its lair the creature quickly put Spriggan out of action and devoured the draugar Hel sent its way.  It was Mandrake who took the beast down, wrestling it to the ground and disabling it with a paralyzing screech.  After falling unconscious the creature once more became Josiah Blackwood, bloodied but alive.  But before the Tenebrae could get Blackwood back to a secure holding cell, the D.P.I. burst into the Wendigo's lair with guns blazing.  The team was forced to beat a quick retreat or be captured themselves, and Blackwood fell into the Department's hands.  Code-named Voracious by the Tenebrae, Blackwood now languishes in a government holding facility, though given the feds' track record with containment, it's only a matter of time before he gets out again to resume his rampage.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: enhanced strength, enhanced speed, enhanced toughness, fangs and claws, scent, grows stronger with every person he consumes

Weaknesses: single-minded obsession with human flesh, animalistic brain (when fully possessed by the Wendigo)[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Cain]Thought by some to be the primordial murderer of legend, Cain is an immortal – cursed with everlasting life, invulnerable and ageless.  Whether or not his origins are truly Biblical, Cain has wandered the world for many millennia; though he has found occasional solace in the arms of mortal women, he has watched all who he loved die, one way or another.  Ancient scars are still visible on his brow; any who strikes Cain activates the Mark, bringing upon themselves instant retribution – their own blow is instantly replicated on their own body.  Any wound Cain is given heals at a fantastic rate: if some part of Cain survives on even a molecular level he will eventually regenerate.  He cannot starve or die of thirst, is immune to all disease, and cannot drown.

Over the long centuries, Cain has come to long desperately for death.  In an attempt to redeem himself and find the peace he seeks, Cain walks the Earth in search of Heaven's enemies.  Demons, of course, are his favourite prey: he has a hound-like patience and a thousand lifetimes of experience in hunting and in fighting (Cain is adept with almost any weapon, and can often be seen with a rusted shopping cart full of them), and with his virtual invincibility he is almost always victorious in combat.  By exiling demons back to the Abyss - essentially working as Hell's parole officer - Cain hopes to eventually cleanse his soul and so be granted death.  His targets are not only demonic, however: he has also been known to track down other threats, including monsters, fey, rogue deities, mutants, extraterrestrials, and all other manner of creature.  Though he has worn many guises over his life, Cain is mostly commonly mistaken for a vagrant.  Grizzled and dark-eyed, Cain is thoroughly mad, and has been known to spend years locked in one of his 'black moods,' staring at brick walls in catatonia or gibbering in an antediluvian tongue.  Other times he is more stable, albeit grim and eccentric, with a black sense of humour and a propensity for anachronistic references.  He is an extreme alcoholic, sometimes going on weeks-long binges, and occasionally uses other drugs as well – unable to overdose or permanently damage his brain or other organs, he can abuse such substances with relative impunity.

While Cain has sometimes proved an ally to the Tenebrae, often-times his goals have been at odds with the organization, and frequently he sees operatives as threats in and of themselves.  Fortunately, Cain doesn't limit his wanderings to St. Lazarus, but he has a habit of showing up in town just when things are at their most fragile, providing an additional complication just when the Tenebrae least need one.  He has a particular enmity with Abyzou, whom he has sent back to the Abyss on multiple occasions.  The demoness has temporarily defeated the demon-hunter herself several times over the centuries (including one memorable time when she had him confined in an oubliette in medieval Normandy), and she may be responsible for at least some of Cain's madness.

It has been speculated that the only way for Cain to be destroyed is by his own hand, though obviously this theory is unconfirmed.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: immortality, healing factor, the Mark, weapons expertise

Weaknesses: insanity, alcoholism[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Gun-Bunny]St. Lazarus' most colourful mercenary and assassin, Gun-Bunny is a young woman who sold her soul to the demon Abaddon in exchange for superhuman proficiency with firearms of all kinds.  Though skilled with virtually any barreled weapon, she prefers the use of her two scratch-built fully automatic machine pistols, Rack and Ruin, with which she is capable of truly spectacular feats or marksmanship, including remarkable trick shots (deflecting other bullets in mid-air, ricocheting bullets around corners, etc).  In addition to her unerring accuracy she can reload her weapons with shocking speed.  She displays a maniacal enthusiasm for her trade, often laughing uproariously during combat (when she isn't sipping from her hip flask or chewing gum).  Unlike more precise killers-for-hire she invariably eschews the stealthy approach and usually causes grotesque amounts of collateral damage in addition to eliminating her intended target, relying on her enhanced reflexes to avoid enemy gunfire or other attacks.  When employers have pointed out that with her remarkable marksmanship she could pursue a more minimalistic strategy, she simply shrugs.  As a result of her bloody escapades she is notorious in St. Lazarus and has remained at the top of the SLPD's most wanted list for several years.  She has been both an ally and an enemy of the Tenebrae at different times, depending on her current employer.

Physically, Gun-Bunny is an attractive woman in her early twenties with hair dyed bubble-gum pink, often styled in two pigtails.  Occasionally she wears roller skates.  She speaks with a heavy valley girl accent and occasionally speaks of her home "back out west," likely implying a Californian background.  When pressed for her real name she has, at various times, identified herself with the names Candice, Cagney, and Kendra.  Considering herself already damned, she indulges in a wide variety of hedonistic behaviour, often with the aid of the excessive amounts of cash she charges for her services.  Extremely promiscuous and openly bisexual, she is a frequent patron of dance clubs in St. Lazarus' Razortown such as Banshee, Writhe, and Original Sin, as well as the numerous raves that tend to crop up in abandoned warehouses in the Midden, often accompanied by the half-incubus Blaspheme, her on-again off-again boyfriend.  She insists that she shoots better when drunk and often takes a pull from a hip flask in the midst of battle.

During her bloody tenure in St. Lazarus she has accrued an alarming body count, recently passing the one-thousand mark.  Her most impressive job to-date is probably her slaughter of the Red Fang Gang, a large gang of lycanthropes, at the behest of the Koroviev Crime Family.  To date she has never refused a job if the payment was sufficient, has never been successfully arrested, and has never failed to dispatch her target.  When asked why she sold her soul Gun-Bunny claims that she was bored and found a spell for summoning Abaddon written in the margins of her high-school math textbook; conjuring the demon seemed more interesting than solving differential equations.  She claims to have hand-made Rack and Ruin in her father's garage.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: preternatural marksmanship and reflexes, master gunsmith

Weaknesses: recklessness[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Cromlech]The undead arch-druid code-named Cromlech is the son of the legendary wizard Merlin and the witch Nimue.  Through his father he has demonic blood; through his mother he bears the blood of the Fomoire, signified by the long antlers protruding from his brow, although he has been known to keep them shorn down in order to remain circumspect.  During a Norse raid on Ireland during the ninth century Cromlech was slain, killed by a Viking axe that sundered his skull in two.  His followers buried his body in a stone chamber tomb, while his soul passed into the Otherworld.  Here he struck a bargain with the Horned God, Crom Cruach, who returned him to life in exchange for his service.  For each human sacrifice Cromlech is able to offer, the Horned God would enhance his dark powers and grant him further tenure in the mortal world. Upon returning to the mortal world, however, Cromlech discovered that centuries had passed – time flows at different rates in the Otherworld.  His body had been plundered from its tomb and placed in a touring museum exhibit at the St. Lazarus Archaeological Museum.  Breaking free of the display case, Cromlech proceeded to murder several security staff before fleeing into the depths of the city.  Though bewildered by the modern world, he quickly began a campaign of terror in St. Lazarus, ritually murdering citizens in a bid to claim the city for the Horned God.  The Tenebrae managed to thwart his ambitions at considerable cost, losing the agent known as Husk in the process.

Cromlech remained in Tenebrae custody for some years, but during the Beltane Breakout he escaped, forming an alliance with the creature Tommy Rawhead and the fungal horror Graveolent, fellow-inmates in the Sepulchre, to engineer an escape attempt which resulted in the single greatest security breach in Tenebrae history and led to the release of dozens of demons, Unseelie fey, eldritch abominations, and other creatures – using his Druidic abilities he was able to enhance the power of the rogue fey and the shambolic fungal creature, allowing them to overcome the wards on their cells and break out of the Sepulchre.  Cromlech now remains at large, certain to be plotting his revenge and devising new ways to serve his dark god.  He bears a particular enmity with Hel, who he associates with the Vikings who originally slew him.

Cromlech appears as a skeletal figure with antlers growing from his skull; his empty eye sockets flicker with an eldritch greenish light.  He typically goes robed (sometimes shearing his antlers) to avoid detection.  He prefers the use of a scythe in combat and is very skilled in its use, able to decapitate and dismember foes with ease.  Cromlech's magickal talents are many and varied; not only does his demonic kinship grant him a degree of infernal puissance, his devotion to the Horned God has earned him many dark gifts, including the ability to call forth fey creatures from the Otherworld and compel them to his service, to manipulate the weather and the natural elements, to bind plants and animals to his will.  Sunlight weakens him and inhibits many of his powers, and holy water burns his flesh; holy symbols can keep him at bay, though Celtic and other pagan symbols have no effect, and Christian symbols are the most effective, particularly of St. Patrick and St. Brigit.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: undead, Druidic and Diabolic magick – plant growth and animation, animal control, summoning, demonism, weather manipulation

Weaknesses: holy water, holy symbols (especially Christian), sunlight[/ic]


[ic=Horripilation]A depraved serial killer with a preference for children, Horripilation is perhaps especially terrifying because he is completely "ordinary" – he has no supernatural talents, no magick, no occult abilities, no otherworldly heritage whatsoever.  When the Tenebrae first encountered the monstrous clown they assumed he must be possessed, or perhaps some form of fear-feeding energy vampire, or an eldritch abomination using the form of a heavily muscled clown as a guise.  None of these suppositions, as it turned out, were correct: no demon or elder god motivates the hideous deeds he carries out, no phantom or alien parasite pulls his strings.  The urges he feels and acts upon, it seems, come wholly from himself.  True, Horripilation displays a level of guile that borders on the preternatural, and his skills in the construction of diabolical traps are ingenious, but his abilities are entirely those of a mundane mortal.  His origins are obscure and uncertain, but he seems to have once been a circus employee, Harris Blake (possibly an alias), responsible for the maintenance of rides in the now-closed Spinetingle Amusement Park – though nothing in his employment record would seem to foreshadow his murders.

A powerfully built man of indeterminate age with filed teeth and garish clown makeup, Horripilation's modus operandi involves the construction of "Funhouses": grotesque mazes he meticulously constructs in abandoned warehouses, derelict factories, forsaken housing projects, and other dilapidated buildings, of which St. Lazarus has no short supply.  These twisted constructions are filled with lethal traps – ball pits infested with spiders, starving rats, venomous snakes, and scorpions; a spinning disc that hurls riders against a spike-studded wall; jets that spurt flaming liquid; slides that deposit riders into vats of acid; animatronic animals that savage those who come too close.  Horripilation deposits the children he captures in such Funhouses, watching them through miniature video cameras scattered throughout the maze.  He then uploads this footage to various video hosting sites for "the public's enjoyment."  No child has ever survived till the end of a Funhouse, though some have been rescued by the authorities (and, occasionally, the Tenebrae) before being killed.

Horripilation has been caught several times and incarcerated, usually in the high-security ward of Belladonna Sanatorium, but he has always escaped, not hesitating to kill guards, orderlies, or other patients.  When interrogated about his motives he insist that he is simply "trying to bring a little more fun into everyone's lives."  An affable, even polite prisoner, he shows no remorse for his actions and claims to have given his victims "the experience of a lifetime," but has proved somewhat susceptible to taunting and mockery, dropping his chivalrous, amiable façade and becoming aggressive and threatening, if only for brief periods.  He has few criminal associates save for the sinister mime-like entity known as Quiescence, some of whose gruesome performance-art pieces seem to be homages to Horripilation's Funhouses.  When asked about the creature, the clown has declared the admiration mutual, calling her "a fellow artist."  Several other copy-cat killers have attempted to replicate Horripilation's methods; in each case they have turned up dead, apparently murdered by the clown himself (he has occasionally alluded to such imitators as "plagiarists").

Though the Tenebrae generally dedicate themselves only to fighting occult threats, leaving non-preternatural crime to the SLPD and other "mundane" organizations, they have a particular grudge against Horripilation, as the clown is responsible for the death of three Tenebrae – Throwback, Chiaroscuro, and Black Scarab.  At the time of their deaths the Tenebrae still suspected Horripilation of being a preternatural entity, their most prominent theory being that his Funhouse murders were part of a ritual to summon the arch-demon Moloch, who demands child sacrifice.  Despite their powers – Throwback's zoanthropic shape-shifting, Chiaroscuro's shadow-magick, and Black Scarab's entomopathy – all three fell prey to Horripilation's traps.  As a result, they have made capturing Horripilation a priority despite his lack of eldritch ability.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: expert trap-maker, extreme cunning, master escapologist, peak physical condition

Weaknesses: mockery[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Black Sun]Leader of the St. Lazarus chapter of the Neo-Nazi organization known as the Scions of Hyperborea – a splinter-sect of the Thule Society – Black Sun (or Schwarze Sonne, in German) is an uncompromising authoritarian who pursues his agenda with utter ruthlessness.  Created as one of the top-secret Nazi Übermenschen as one of the twelve Knights of the Death's Head, he spent much of the later twentieth century cryogenically frozen in a bunker hidden under the ice in New Swabia, but was revived at the dawn of the new millennium by the Scions under the leadership of the Nazi necromancer Totenkopf.  Travelling to St. Lazarus following rumours that a gateway to the caverns of Hyperborea could be found beneath the city, and that certain ancient relics of tremendous power had a habit of surfacing in St. Lazarus, Black Sun has established himself as one of the major players in the city's occult landscape.  Apart from pursuing these goals he and the Scions spend their time attacking so-called "degenerates" in St. Lazarus (Jews and other members of ethnic minorities, homosexuals, and others they consider "subhuman" or inferior), perpetrating horrific crimes, often as part of grotesque rituals.

During WWII Black Sun fought mostly on the eastern front as a member of the dreaded Einsatzgruppen, the murderous task-forces dispatched to implement the Final Solution during Operation Barbarossa.  Working alongside the hybrid horror Werwolf and fellow Death's Head Knight  Blood Eagle under the direction of Totenkopf, Black Sun stalked through Poland and Russia, personally murdering hundreds and ordering the deaths of thousands more.  Infused with the chemical known as Vril, he developed potent preterhuman powers – specifically, a form of pyrokinesis.  Through concentration, Black Sun can create and manipulate lightless flames, enveloping himself in black fire or producing shadowy conflagrations.  He can also control existing fires, which turn black when he manipulates them.  Black Sun exhales flammable carbon monoxide gas (in the right circumstances, he can use his poisonous breath to asphyxiate his enemies).  In addition to these powers he has some skill with runic magick, using runes for matters of divination and in certain ceremonial rites, mostly carried out in the Scions' secret base, the underground Führerbunker known as Wolfsschanze II in honour of Hitler's eastern front headquarters.

Black Sun is physically formidable, with a muscular frame and an indomitable stare.  He typically wears heavy leather clothing (treated with flame retardants), highly reminiscent of classic S.S. garb.  He is completely hairless, all trace of hair having been burnt off his body.  Though in excellent physical condition he lost his left hand during a fight with a Soviet upyr.  In addition to being pyrokinetic he is a superb shot, wielding a Luger P08 usually loaded with ensorcelled incendiary rounds.  Though he has worked closely with Totenkopf, he and the lich have different approaches to esoteric Nazism, with the lich embracing a form Nazi Satanism and demonolotry with elements drawn from the Order of Nine Angles and Black Sun favouring racialized Nordic Neopaganism.  As such he has an intense reverence for Hel, and has tried to convince the goddess to leave the Tenebrae on several occasions.  Hel, for her part, has denounced Black Sun as a "worthless nithing."  Black Sun has made few friends in St. Lazarus, though the Dvergar Dvalinn, when he can be roused, has been known to make weapons for the Scions.  He has a particularly strong enmity with the "bloodsucking Slavs" of the Koroviev Crime Family.  Black Sun is known to be especially interested in securing the spears of the Valkyries.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: pyrokinesis, carbon monoxide breath, runic magick

Weaknesses: missing left hand[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Revenant]A vigilante crime-fighter of the highest calibre, the undead police officer known as Revenant was once Albrecht Craven, a homicide detective who was wrongfully convicted for the murder of his wife and children, cast as a madman and framed by his corrupt partner Derick Wallace, an officer in the pocket of the vampiric Koroviev Crime Family.  Sentenced to death, he was executed via the legendary electric chair "Juicy Jackie" and buried in the city's cemetery.  Soon after being interred, however, Albrecht revived, clawing his way out of his own grave, returned to life apparently through the sheer desire for vengeance filling his cadaverous heart.  Some have pointed out that Albrecht's death coincided with the tradition date of the Nemesaia, a festival honoured the goddess Nemesis, the personification of vengeance; others claim that it was Juicy Jackie herself that imbued Albrecht with the spark of unlife, the deadly chair having become a manifestation of justice and righteous death after being used as an implement of execution for so many years.  Whatever the case, Revenant returned from the dead with only one desire – vengeance against those who wronged him.

Revenant is a reanimated corpse, and his necrotic state is ready discernible – his skin is pale and grey, drawn tightly over bones, and he smells of embalming fluid and other preservatives.  However, he does not decompose as a normal corpse would.  He typically garbs himself in a heavy trenchcoat and a wide-brimmed hat to shadow his features.  His weapon of choice is a Magnum Research BFR with a rifle-length long cylinder enabling it to fire .50 Beowulf rounds.  Though this is a mundane weapon, Revenant rarely misses a shot.  He is preternaturally strong, and as an undead entity cannot be harmed by poison, disease, or similar weapons.  Mind-influencing powers usually have a negligible effect on him, and he has no need to breathe.  Normally lethal wounds, such as a direct shot to the head or other vitals, have no effect on him, barely slowing him down.  Holy water scorches his skin and sunlight (or powerful, artificial UV light) renders him weak and torpid.  Though disillusioned with the legal system and more than willing to kill when he believes an offender to deserve death, Revenant is capable of restraint and refuses to harm innocents.  For those he deems corrupt, however, Revenant is merciless, and is more than willing to use torture and extreme violence against those who dare to stand between him and justice.

Revenant's hit-list includes all members of the Koroviev Crime Family, Derick Wallace, and the mysterious murderer who actually killed his family.  So far he has put Derick in the ground, along with several of the Korovievs.  However, Revenant does not confine his activities to those who wronged him specifically – in addition to seeking out and killing those who wronged him, he helps protect the streets of St. Lazarus from criminal threats both occult and mundane.  As a result he has had several run-ins with the Tenebrae.  Though the Tenebrae do not always approve of his methods, they often find themselves on the same side as the undead vigilante, though he has repeatedly refused offers of membership.  Despite the fairly amicable relationship between Revenant and the Tenebrae, he would not hesitate to use force against them if they were to obstruct his goals.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: preternatural strength and toughness, undead, expert detective and marksman

Weaknesses: holy water, sunlight, will not harm innocents[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Devil Dog]One of the D.P.I.'s top field agents, Devil Dog (civilian name: Max Huger) is a former U.S. Marine, principally serving as a special operator, who was recruited by the D.P.I. following action in the Somali Civil War.  During his time at the D.P.I., Devil Dog volunteered for an experimental procedure to enhance D.P.I. talents, during which he was injected with a modified lycanthropic virus.  The experiment was mostly successful, transforming Devil Dog into a werewolf with full control over his powers, able to shift between human and lupine forms at will; however, he is still unable to prevent his transformation during the full moon (and is unable to shift back during a full moon), and though usually capable of holding back his bestial instincts they still sometimes get the better of him, urging him to feed on the flesh of fallen enemies.  Already a skilled tracker, Devil Dog now possesses preternaturally strong scent capabilities even when in human form.  Apart from his preternatural powers he is a superb soldier, accomplished leader, and skilled investigator.  What he lacks in subtlety and finesse he makes up for with efficiency and brute force.  

Physically, Devil Dog is a heavy-set, powerfully muscled man in his late thirties, of primarily Scandinavian descent (although he is, in fact, one quarter Apache, on his father's side); as a side-effect of the lycanthropic virus in his system he is exceedingly hairy, though he keeps his hair shorn short (though he shaves with a straight razor every day, by noon he has a heavy stubble and by nightfall what looks like a week's growth on his face).  He bears a number of scars from various wounds, as well as a "Semper Fidelis" tattoo on his back, an eagle, globe, and anchor on his right bicep, a bulldog on his left bicep, and an American flag on his chest.  When in his lycanthropic form he appears as a wolf-human hybrid with black fur, red eyes, and massive white fangs; in this form he is capable of either bipedal or quadruped locomotion, though he is faster on all fours.  While in his werewolf form he can shrug off almost any normal wound – only silver weapons can deal him permanent harm.  He can also preternaturally command the loyalty of other canine creatures, and often brings a pair of trained wolf-dog hybrids, Chesty and Daly, into the field with him.  Though he prefers to engage foes hand-to-hand he is capable with a variety of firearms and other weapons, preferring an M9 Beretta identical to those used in the Marine Corps.

Devil Dog is extremely patriotic and steadfastly loyal to the D.P.I.  He was appalled when Evil Eye, one of his closest associates in the Department, defected to the Tenebrae, and holds a grudge against the former operative.  He has made it his personal mission to track down the rogue agent, considering him a traitor of the worst variety.  An obedient and efficient agent, he does whatever it takes to get a job done.  Devil Dog played a central role in the Millennium Diabolicide, personally butchering hundreds of demon-blooded individuals during the government-sponsored purge of St. Lazarus.  He claims to feel no guilt for his actions – only pride.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: lycanthropy, expert tracker, martial artist

Weaknesses: silver, wolfsbane[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Red Cap]The changeling code-named Red Cap – born Jamie Seehan – is the spawn of a Fear Dearg, a type of Irish goblin renowned for its violent pranks.  Raised as a human, Jamie didn't discover his fey heritage for many years.  His parents were Patricia and Father Aidan Seehan, residents of the small town of Fuath's Hollow in the Casket River Valley a few hours outside of St. Lazarus.  Baptist zealots, the pair found Jamie an unruly child, prone to mischief and rebellion, and so did their best to inculcate strong Christian morals in Jamie by any means necessary.  Jamie quickly learned to hate the Good Book nearly as much as his adoptive father's belt – for Father Aidan Seehan knew his Probers by heart, knowing that he that spareth his rod hateth his son but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes, and that while foolishness is bound in the heart of a child, the rod of correction shall drive it far from him.  When they found him idly torturing a stray dog or carving obscenities he should not have known into the floorboards his false parents would lock him for days in a small basement room with nothing but a Bible and a candle, providing him with just enough water to survive, letting him out only once he could recite passages by heart.  By thirteen, when Jamie was brought to his believer's baptism, his back was a mass of scar tissue and his body was scrawny and undernourished.  When Jamie's "father" thrust Jamie's head into the murky water of the Casket River, something happened to the boy – a pent up rage, seething in his breast, was unleashed.  When he surfaced he was no longer Jamie Seehan: he had become Red Cap.

During his adolescence, Red Cap's powers began to manifest themselves.  Both his parents started having nightmares and Patricia began sleepwalking, walking the streets of Fuath's Hollow naked in the moonlight.  Wherever he went radios would flicker to life, spouting pagan prayers in a deep, unidentified voice.  Soon Aidan and Patricia began to blame their "son" for the strange events plaguing their household, his punishments only growing more severe.  One day, while sitting in the front row in church and staring at Adian as he gave a sermon, Red Cap fantasized about his father spouting blasphemies, describing pornographic acts of depravity and sin: then, inexplicably, Father Aidan began doing exactly as Jamie imagined, inciting his congregation to orgiastic acts, seemingly powerless to stop the torrent of lasciviousness spilling from his mouth.  When they returned home, they found that every Bible in the house had changed, the words on their pages subtly but undeniably transformed, the passages now slyly mocking God and advocating sin and excess.  Father Aidan grew irate, blaming Jamie for the changes, declaring that he'd been possessed.  Grabbing the boy he took him out behind the house to beat out the demon, but this time Red Cap refused to be punished.  Grabbing a garden hoe he turned on his "father" with preternatural strength, hurling him down and taking the rusty implement to Adian's body, brutally dismembering and then decapitating him.  When Patricia rushed out of the house and discovered Jamie drenched in gore, holding Aidan's head in one hand and the blood-stained hoe in the other, she screamed and fled, but tree-roots in the garden ripped themselves from the heathen earth and snared her ankles, pulling her to the ground.  Red Cap butchered her as well and loaded his parents' pickup truck with the body parts of his abusers.  With Aidan's key he broke into the church in Fuath's Hollow and decorated the place with their viscera, draping the pews with their intestines and hammering their mismatched body parts to the central cross to form a headless hermaphrodite Christ.  Their heads he kept for himself as trophies.  After locking up the church again he drove out of Fuath's Hollow and towards the city.

So began the bloody killing spree of Red Cap in St. Lazarus, a series of abominable serial murders and gruesome "practical jokes," most of them targeting clergymen.  The SLPD found themselves stymied – the killer had left plenty of DNA, but it didn't seem human, confounding every forensic analyst that examined it.  The D.P.I. became involved, but it was the Tenebrae who eventually tracked Red Cap down, using Hel's criminological expertise to trace the changeling killer to his lair in the sewers of St. Lazarus.  The fey creature was incarcerated for a time in the high-security holding cells of the Sepulchre, but during the infamous Beltane Breakout he escaped Tenebrae containment along with many other captive extranormals.  He now remains at large, having evaded recapture consistently; it is only a matter of time before he strikes again.  Physically, Red Cap appears to man in his early twenties, short and very thing, with whitish-blond hair and reddish-brown eyes.  He favours dark red clothing and often fights with improvised weapons as well as Unseelie magick.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: preternatural strength and agility, Unseelie magick – curses, plant growth and animation, command of animals

Weaknesses: cold iron[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Sepsis]The being known as Sepsis is a creature of unknown origin but immense power.  Theories as to its genesis vary.  Some claim it to be the spawn of the Sinistral Institute, created when eldritch substances discarded in St. Lazarus' sewers mingled and combined with the city's effluvia.  Others argue the thing is an elemental spirit, a primeval manifestation of entropy and decay.  Still others insist the thing is an extraterrestrial intelligence, a servitor of the dread "Usurpers" that drove the Eld from earth in the planet's prehistory.  Whatever the case, Sepsis is one of the most dangerous entities in the city.  Thankfully, it keeps mostly to the sewers and the tunnels under the Midden, preferring to use its "avatars" as its mouthpieces on the surface – the feverish Pyrexia, the entomopath Verminous, and the putrescent horror Tzaraath, humans Sepsis has granted its "Embrace" to.  Physically, Sepsis resembles a mass of animate muck, a roiling, oozing amorphousness composed of glistening blackish slime embedded with garbage and detritus; it is unclear whether the creature's body is actually composed of waste or whether it simply picks up bits and pieces as it slithers through the tunnels.  Exuding malodorous gas, the creature rarely assumes any intelligible shape, but occasionally faces seem to rise to the greasy, mottled surface of its fluidic vastness – some have speculated these are the visages of those the thing has absorbed or fed upon.  The being does seem to require sustenance and has been seen devouring rats, vagrants, and sewage.

The true extent of Sepsis' powers are not fully understood, but it possesses the ability to twist reality in a variety of ways, warping dimensions of spacetime to create maddening labyrinths from which there is no escape.  It can vomit forth parts of itself to act independently or reanimate corpses.  Its noisome vapours are highly toxic and its touch can impart horrific diseases; an aura of decay surrounds it, poisoning all that draw near to it, accelerating rot, breaking down organic material.  Attacks against the thing have met with limited success, at best driving it away, deep into the heart of its putrescent domain.  Blessed weapons are useless against it, as are silver, cold iron, and other materials that commonly harm preternatural beings.  The vast majority of wards are ineffective against it.  It has likewise proved imperious to psychic manipulation – its consciousness is simply too alien to affect.  The mere sight of Sepsis, however, has been known to drive some mad; homeless people can sometimes be heard describing glimpses of it.  It has been speculated that the creature dislikes sunlight, but this is little more than a guess.

Sepsis' long-term goals and overriding motives are unknown.  Its avatars, however, rule over what amount to cults or fiefdoms amongst the city's destitute, forcing those who live in the Midden to provide Sepsis with "sacrifices."  It is uncertain whether the entity is simply feeding on such offerings or gathering bodies (or souls?) for some yet more unwholesome purpose.  So far, the Tenebrae have managed to contain the entity in the tunnels and limit the operation of its avatars, but the entity seems to be preparing for something.  Unless a means of defeating Sepsis is discovered before it enacts whatever horror it has in store for the city, St. Lazarus may be in very serious trouble indeed.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: near-invulnerability, amorphousness, aura of decay, toxic gas, touch of disease, Embrace

Weaknesses: unknown[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Bloodbag]Vitali Koroviev is the patriarch of the Koroviev Crime Family, a cadre of vampires and Russian thieves-in-law who immigrated to America following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  Since the early 1990s he has carved out a sizeable territory in St. Lazarus, controlling not only a significant portion of the city's occult underground but a predominant share of mundane criminal enterprise as well.  Better known by his nickname Bloodbag (a moniker none would dare speak to his face), Vitali is a brutal mob boss who does not hesitate to use extreme violence to advance his goals.  Descendent of an ancient vampire clan of boyars that dwelt in Russia for centuries, Bloodbag lost most of his family during the Revolution, when Bolsheviks staked his kindred in their efforts to purge the Motherland of the nobility.  Bloodbag himself was sentenced to labour in the Gulag and spent decades labouring for the Soviets, eventually involving himself in the Bitch Wars following WWII.  After Stalin's death, millions were released from the camps, including Bloodbag, at which point he began rebuilding his empire and his family.  By the time the USSR had collapsed he had become rich and powerful once again, striking out for America like many other Bratva at the time.

Now ensconced in St. Lazarus as a major player in the city's underworld, Bloodbag has grown fat and indolent: weighing well over three hundred pounds, he sups on the blood of beautiful women every night, mostly sex workers brought over as part of the Koroviev's human trafficking operation.  Thorny rose tattoos cover his limbs and chest, relics of his time in Soviet prison camps.  Despite his corpulence, Bloodbag is prodigiously strong, able to easily rip a person limb from limb, and though somewhat less agile than some upyr he is nonetheless preternaturally dextrous and quick.  He can dominate others with his gaze and possesses the power of flight; he can also command wolves, bats, and other creatures of the night.  A practitioner of blood magick, he has been known to exercise control over the weather, to curse his enemies, and to perform divinations using blood.  Like all vampires he is very difficult to kill, healing most wounds in moments, though sunlight, holy water, and blessed weapons are all capable of harming him, and a stake to the heart, followed by decapitation, would permanently destroy him.

Most of Vitali Koroeviev's family dwell in St. Lazarus with him, including his son Viktor (better known as Vourdalak) and his wife Alexandra (sometimes called the Rusalka).  His previous chief enforcer, the ex-KGB upyr Bloodscent, was staked by Revenant, leading him to hire Lady Leech.  For some years now he has been in a protracted gang-war with the Neo-Nazi Scions of Hyperborea, whose skinhead thugs control the southeast side of the city, based in Crowswood and Blackchurch; the Korovievs control most of the north side, including the red-light and clubbing districts of Razortown.  Bloodbag spends most of his time in the crypt-like depths of his headquarters, protected by dozens of bodyguards at all times.  S.H.R.O.U.D. and the D.P.I. are both intent on taking the mob boss down, but widespread corruption has stymied their efforts so far.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: undead, blood-draining attack, flight, preternatural strength and agility, healing factor, animal control, blood magick

Weaknesses: sunlight, holy water, holy symbols, staking, bloodthirst[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Graveolent]Created in a Sinistral Institute laboratory as the ultimate biological weapon, the being known as Graveolent is a sapient fungus capable of copying itself almost infinitely so long as it possesses sufficient hosts to do so.  Greyish-green and reeking of carrion, Graveolent is able to duplicate itself through spores that colonize the flesh and brains of other individuals, spreading beneath their skin and eventually assuming control of their bodies, consuming them rapidly and transforming them into doppelgangers of itself.  In its "mature" form, Graveolent appears as a hulking fungal creature, a mass of fruiting bodies, slightly different every time in exact appearance, with an outline similar to that of its host.  A single iteration of Graveolent generally has between three days and a week to live – memories encoded in its spores enable copies of Graveolent to retain continuity between one another, and so the creature spreads itself from host to host, infecting as many individuals as it can.  Fully self-aware and intelligent, the creature conceives of itself as a glorious liberator ushering those it infects into harmonious homogeneity, beautifying their bodies with its corruption.  With pathogenic logic it seeks to bring all it touches under its control.  Able to exhale clouds of spores and spread itself by touching bare skin, Graveolent and its proxies can also generate a variety of other poisons in their bodies to render potential hosts unconscious, sickened, confused, or otherwise incapacitated.  Flame and fungicides destroy it, but it is near-impervious to most conventional weaponry.  Naturally, it prefers dank, dark environments and finds extreme heat, cold, and light abhorrent – indeed, blasts of heat or cold or beams of bright illumination can keep it temporarily at bay, disorienting it and apparently inflicting some fungal analogue of pain upon it.

Graveolent was originally developed to serve as a sort of super soldier.  The Institute envisioned a weapon that could be dispersed through the air, rapidly eliminating enemy threats and converting them into obedient thralls.  Unfortunately, a small sample of Graveolent escaped containment and quickly spread throughout the Sinistral Laboratory in which it was being inculcated.  Infesting several researchers, Graveolent freed the host in which it had originally been cultivated and nearly destroyed most of the Sinistral laboratory; a lockdown was declared and the laboratory purged using fire and potent fungicides, but in the mayhem a single iteration of Graveolent managed to escape.  The creature began spreading itself across St. Lazarus, at which point the Tenebrae intervened, destroying many copies of the creature.  A single host was captured and held in a special stasis chamber in the Sepulchre for analysis.  Unfortunately, Graveolent managed to form an alliance with the undead Cromlech; unable to infest the undead's skeletal form, the fungus was more than happy to help the druid engineer the Beltane Breakout, a disastrous breach of the Sepulchre that led to dozens of incarcerated demons, fey, elementals, ghosts, and other horrors being freed from confinement.  While many of these escapees have been recaptured or eliminated, Graveolent remains at large.  Thus far it has confined itself to preying on the city's extensive homeless population, and seems to be holding back from another full-out infestation.  This reticence is disturbing – it suggests the being has learned from its prior mistakes, and may be planning some new method of infecting St. Lazarus with its virulent spores.

Hosts freshly infected by Graveolent may not be aware of their own affliction, and indeed as infestation continues a host's cognitive power is progressively degraded.  An ugly greenish rash beneath the skin and a strengthening odour reminiscent of rotting flesh accompanies infection, and once Graveolent has assumed full control over a host they begin to rot rapidly, decomposition speeded by the fruiting bodies spreading over their exposed skin.  Infected in the early stages will frequently seek out damp, dark places and feel a compulsion to conceal their flesh from others.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: self-replication, toxic spores, extreme resilience

Weaknesses: fire, fungicides, bright light, extreme temperatures[/ic]


[ic=Troll]The cyber-criminal and anarchist dubbed Troll is a trickster, a mischief-maker and revolutionary who operates primarily in St. Lazarus, working out of a chain of basements, studio apartments, condemned buildings, and cheap hotels.  Unlike Pareidolia, whose digital pranks are rarely harmful in any permanent manner, Troll's operations frequently stray into cyber-terrorism.  Few know the truth of Troll's origins.  Originally nothing more than a talented young hacker, Eliphas Phillips made the mistake of breaking into the protected databases of S.H.R.O.U.D., the so-called Umbral Archive (that he even discovered S.H.R.O.U.D.'s existence is a feat in itself).  Stumbling into the Archive through a mixture of luck and ability without any of the usual precautions required for viewing such dangerous information, Eliphas accidentally released an entity the organization had quarantined deep within – an Egregore, a type of thought-form coalesced from internet folklore, communal belief, and occult energy, a pastiche of memetic myth.  Bubbling up from the collective unconscious and acquiring primitive self-awareness, the spirit had been imprisoned within the Umbral Archive for several years; when Eliphas broke into its digital prison it seized eagerly upon his mind.  As he read the strange sigils flashing across his screen, infectious information seeped into his consciousness, allowing the Egregore to take root within his mind, to merge with him to become something more – the being known as Troll.

Physically, Troll is twisted and hideous, having distorted Eliphas' body over the years.  Hunched, pallid, and malformed, Troll rarely ventures into public spaces and prefers the use of a Halloween mask and loose clothing when he does.  Due to psychic confusion and mythological cross-contamination, Troll has some of the powers of a traditional, mythic Troll: he is turned to stone by sunlight and repelled by the sound of church-bells, and has significantly enhanced strength and toughness.  The majority of Troll's powers, however, are digital in nature; a preternaturally gifted programmer, Troll has created computer viruses that drive users mad, sucked the souls of targets into his eldritch server through their screens, and engineered malevolent artificial intelligences.  Able to process vast quantities of data with incredible rapidity with his powerful intellect, Troll is supremely knowledgeable, with an eidetic memory.  He is fully conversant in multiple occult traditions and has dealt with and invoked demons, ghosts, fey, daevas, oni, jinn, and other tulpas and thought-forms like himself.  On several occasions he has allied himself with various preterhumans, occultists, and other groups when their common goals align.  By hacking financial systems and employing other forms of cyber-fraud and identity theft he can access virtually infinite funds.  Troll can  exert psychokinetic control over computers even from a distance, causing electronic devices equipped with microchips to malfunction or obey his commands.

Troll's agenda is difficult to pin down, but he seems to resent all authority and repeatedly targets governments, large corporations, police systems, and religious institutions.  While he shows little regard for human life and considers most people "brainwashed" zombies in the thrall of prevailing ideologies, he usually focuses his attacks on those in positions of power.  Such attacks exhibit Troll's decidedly cruel interpretation of "social justice" and gruesome sensibilities.  During an assault on the Sinistral Institute, for example, he created an addictive browser-game accessible only by Sinistral researchers that became so all-consuming that several scientists wasted away in front of their screens, neglecting to feed themselves or sleep, while during his attack on Strix Enterprises he programmed all Strix computers to emit a hypnotic screech that convinced employees that they were owls, causing them to throw themselves out of their office windows in an attempt at flight.  Despite his murderous inclinations, Troll has garnered a reputation amongst some radical groups as a heroic figure.  Enough of his human persona remains that he occasionally manages to curb his violent impulses and give back to those in need; bags of untraceable bills liberated from corporate bank accounts sometimes show up on the doorsteps of charities, schools, and non-profits dedicated to progressive agendas, a troll doll left atop them as a calling card.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: preternatural intellect, expert hacker, eidetic memory, enhanced strength and toughness, psychokinetic computer control, magick of various schools

Weaknesses: sunlight petrification, church bells, hideous appearance[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=The Chirurgeon]The deranged alchemist known as the Chirurgeon has walked the earth for many centuries, his lifespan extended through arcane drugs, rituals, and profane experimentation.  On an unending quest to unravel the secrets of life and death, the Chirurgeon has travelled far and wide over the years, seeking out mystic knowledge in the far east, questing into certain monolithic ruins hidden in the Antarctic ice, delving into primeval temples in the depths of South America.  He began his career in the university at Wittenberg, Germany, but was expelled for practising unwholesome experiments on local livestock.  Taking to the countryside he began robbing graveyards, performing unusual operations, and testing a variety of fiendish machines, concoctions, and other inventions of his own design.  It was around this time that he first created the homunculus Mandrake, who served as his familiar and assistant for several centuries.  He acquired several grimoires and other esoteric texts, including the famed Mysteries of the Leech and the dread Liber Infernum, and began consorting with extradimensional beings (including, on one occasion, the demoness Abyzou).  Over time he became conversant in fields such as bioengineering, only increasing his capacity for evil.  The Chirurgeon claims that his guiding motive is nothing more than "an abiding curiosity" with the world rather than outright megalomania, and that his obsession with attaining immortality is simply a means of ensuring he can continue to slake his thirst for knowledge.

The Chirurgeon is skilled in several magickal traditions, but is most adept in the manufacture of potions, serums, and other alchemical substances, and in the creation of monstrous creatures with the aid of such eldritch chemicals.  Apart from Mandrake, the Chirurgeon is responsible for the horrifying amalgamated being Hecatonchire, the alluring but sinister Sylphid, and the abomination known as Headless, as well as many others.  Most of his creations are mutated or surgically altered humans or animals.  He particularly prizes preterhuman subjects and is especially fascinated by Cruor and Lady Leech, whose recuperative powers he believes may assist him become truly immortal.  In the past he has also expressed strong interest in capturing Mollusc and the undead vigilante Revenant.  While the Chirurgeon is capable of extreme strength and speed when the right battery of drugs are flowing through his withered veins, he is normally quite frail.

Physically, the Chirurgeon appears as a gnarled, weather-beaten man; though he covers himself in a ragged robe most of the time, his body is riddled with strange tumours, swellings, and nodules, his skin crisscrossed with thousands of stitches, his body resembling a hideous jigsaw puzzle of surgical scars.  He frequently sports unusual grafts and appendages; though his particular augmentations vary widely, one of his hands is always equipped with a range of scalpels, lancets, and other surgical blades in place of fingernails.  Sections of his skin constantly shift and change as he replaces them with scavenged flesh – as the philosopher's stone still eludes him, he has taken to replacing his body parts with those of his victims to enhance his longevity.  Masses of intravenous tubing filled with bilious liquids writhe across his limbs and back, pumping a steady stream of drugs into his bloodstreams.  He exudes a telltale acrid reek of formaldehyde and other chemicals, as well as a distinct carrion stench as he continuously rots.  Over the years Chirurgeon has become virtually inured to pain, and can comfortably practice surgery on himself without anaesthetics.  He has a chipper, inquisitive persona and seems more detached and clinical than sadistic when performing his experiments on captive subjects.

While the Chirurgeon's real and identity are unknown (even to Mandrake), he uses a variety of aliases, including Johann Wurm, Ludwig Auerbach, and Eric Riesendorf.  Some have suggested that the Chirurgeon may have inspired the Faust legend, and some claim that he orchestrated the Ripper murders as part of an elaborate ritual.  It is said he has worked with a range of notorious madmen, occultists, scientists, and fanatics – Paracelsus, Agrippa, Rosenkreuz, Swedenborg, Crowley, Rasputin, Steiner, Mengele.  In St. Lazarus, he has occasionally joined forced with other occultists such as Black Annis, Cromlech, and even the enigmatic Troll.  His single greatest rival is Alienist, the current director of the Sinistral Institute (actually a Formless One bonded to a human body).

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: master alchemist, diabolic magick, necromancy, genius intellect, bioengineering expert, preternaturally talented surgeon, grafts

Weaknesses: constantly decomposing, drug dependency, frailty[/spoiler][/ic]

[ic=Susurrus]An expert infiltrator, spy, and sabateur, the S.H.R.O.U.D. agent known as Susurrus (born Benjamin Winters) has the ability to implant psychic suggestions in the minds of others, subliminal compulsions so powerful he can erase his presence in the minds of his targets, rewriting memories with a few soft-spoken words.  His hypnotic abilities are potent enough to rival those of Alienist; he has successfully induced subjects to murder trusted associates, believe impossibilities, and betray closely guarded secrets.  Only those with heightened perceptions, extreme willpower, or inhuman psychological profiles (such as demons, extraterrestrials, synthetic beings, or similar entities) are wholly immune to his powers, though his conditioning can be disrupted or overcome through occult means, and those unable to hear Susurrus' voice cannot be affected by it.  While he could use his abilities for personal gain, he is a dedicated government agent and one of S.H.R.O.U.D.'s greatest assets.

Susurrus' abilities are not entirely natural.  His commanding whisper is the result of a surgical graft – his vocal cords have been replaced with those of a Siren.  While the operation was a success, it left heavy scar tissue around Winter's throat; as a result he can only speak in a soft whisper.  Prior to his service in S.H.R.O.U.D., Winters served as a PSYOP specialist in the special forces (including time as one of the Green Berets) and acquired a reputation as a masterful interrogator.  Where other interrogators utilized water-boarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques" bordering on physical torture, Winters was able to extract information from subjects using psychological manipulation and other "no-touch" interrogation methods.  He came to S.H.R.O.U.D.'s attention following his tour in Afghanistan when, during a particularly intense interrogation session with what he believed to be an insurgent, the man he was questioning revealed himself to be a Ghul, a type of anthropophagic, shapeshifting djinn.  The creature attacked Winters and his comrades, sprouting a mouthful of crooked fangs and killing over half a dozen men, but Winters fought it off and subdued the entity, imprisoning it in the interrogation room.  S.H.R.O.U.D. agents were quickly dispatched to wipe the memories of survivors and cover the incident up, but while debriefing Winters, Warren Chapel – better known by his code-name, Evil Eye – read the interrogator's file and petitioned S.H.R.O.U.D.'s executive director, the Red Queen, to leave Winters' memories intact and induct him into the organization.  The Red Queen consented and Winters was subsequently transferred to the secret S.H.R.O.U.D. base on Catafalque Island.

Apart from his suggestive voice, Susurrus is trained in hand-to-hand combat, marksmanship, infiltration, sabotage, and disguise.  A pale, sinewy man with large, dark eyes and a cruel mouth, Susurrus is short and thin; though not as physically formidable as some S.H.R.O.U.D. agents, such as Headstone or Nest, he more than makes up for his slight build through intense physical and mental conditioning.  He was a close friend of Evil Eye, viewing the older agent as a mentor, and even after Evil Eye left for the D.P.I. the two kept in touch.  Susurrus is uncertain how to view Evil Eye's defection, and remains at privately convinced that the former agent's induction into the Tenebrae is a top-secret project orchestrated by the Red Queen to gather information on the group of rogue demon-hunters and magi.

[spoiler=Powers and Abilities]Powers: commanding voice, expert infiltrator, saboteur, interrogator, and martial artist

Weaknesses: inhuman psychologies[/spoiler][/ic]

[ooc]I ran out of room on the first page so I moved the Rogues Gallery here.  More to come - Alienist, Lady Leech, Blaspheme, Quiescence, Phantasmagoria, Pentecost, Totenkopf, Choronzon, the Babe, Tommy Rawhead, Reverend Gibbet, Black Annis, Headstone, Nest, Verminous, Pyrexia, Tzaraath, the Red Queen, Hecatonchire, Sylphid, Headless, Justine, Juliette, Jabberwock, Samael, Meatgrinder, Hecatomb, and others.[/ooc]

[ic=Quadra]The woman once known as Teresa Racht (Tessa to her friends) was a child prodigy in mathematics, gaining a full scholarship to the University of St. Lazarus at the young age of fourteen, and graduating six years later with a double PhD in mathematics and philosophy with research concentrations in fractal geometry and quantum metaphysics.  While her talents gained her much attention, they ended up translating into few real opportunities: her young age, brash, borderline arrogant demeanor, painfully honest mode of speech, and somewhat slovenly appearance resulted in a distinct lack of employment.  On the other hand, due to her great talent and diverse skill set, she gained the attention of the Tenebrae, who had no qualms about her eccentricities – compared to some of their members, such things were mild.  Young Tessa was all too eager to have real work, and quite engaging challenges at that.  They frequently contracted her to tackle esoteric mathematical problems relating to the possibility of parallel universes and higher dimensions. At this time, she was but an interesting and talented human, so they did not tell her the true nature of their organization, and she did not ask too many questions.

Teresa has a genius-level intellect, and despite the Tenebrae's desire to keep her in the dark concerning some of the implications of the problems they presented her with, she began to realize what the data she was working with meant and began doing experiments of her own.  During one such ill-fated experiment, however, Tessa received what should have been a lethal dose of entropic radiation – directly to her face no less.  It was only through the timely intervention of the Tenebrae that she was not killed, as the organization had planted monitoring wards throughout her apartment.  Initially, it was thought she had been blinded, but in actuality, she had gained a higher degree of sight, her eyes warped by the entropic energies and gaining extradimensional perception.  She struggled with it at first, suffering frequent migraines, but she eventually came to master her new perception, as well as the other abilities that came with it.  Out of a sense of loyalty and gratitude, or perhaps simply lacking anywhere else to go, she became a full member of the Tenebrae, now known as Quadra.

Quadra could certainly be called cute, but she could also certainly be called slight, pale, and often rather unkempt – a scruffy waif.  Her eyes are actually hyperspheres, and seem to perpetually shimmer and change color from blue to purple to orange and back again; when she needs to go out in public, she frequently keeps them hidden behind large sunglasses, regardless of the time of day.  Although not overtly antisocial, she has deep resentment of authority, and tends to be easily distracted by "interesting" intellectual challenges, completely unrelated to any mission at hand.  Teresa's office in the Sepulchre is unusual, to the say the least, organized in a way that only makes sense to her.  Her filing system violates most of the laws of physics as most would perceive them, and her desk is usually covered in elaborate towers of mathematical and scientific publications, unfolded polychora, origami animals, and various objects that have been displaced into the fourth dimension giving them strange and disturbing shapes.  These intricate towers seem impossibly precarious, but Quadra insists this is only due to the limits of three-dimensional perception and that they are in fact "quite stable."  Her closest friends among the Tenebrae are probably Miasma, who cared for her during her convalescence, and Mollusc, whom she finds fascinating and questions ad nauseum, claiming its body is "fascinating" (Mollusc itself finds her attentions rather flattering and slightly unnerving).  Quadra has something of a professional rivalry with Pareidolia, finding the chaos witch's methodologies highly suspect; the two do occasionally collaborate, but such cooperation is fleeting.

[spoiler=Powers]
Attributes: Physique 4, Puissance 8, Resilience 4, Resolve 6, Expertise 8

Powers:

Four Dimensional Awareness: Quadra can use her Puissance for initiative and to dodge physical attacks, as long as she is aware and physically able to make the necessary movements.

Transdimensional Clarity:  Most visual illusions and glamers completely fail to affect Quadra, as they lack the proper fourth dimensional contours of a real object. However, illusions projected directly into her mind generally will affect her.

Ana-Kata Reach: Quadra is able to reach into a direction perpendicular to the normal curvature of space. Complex sleight of hand becomes rather easy, few locks or sealed containers are able to keep their contents safe from a rotation along their w-axis, and the consequences for a living being are anything from severe disorientation if they are slightly tilted to a gruesome death if they are entirely upended. This Difficulty of the Puissance check is 8 (and, as such, usually automatic) for small things on her person, 10 for things like common locks or objects too large for her to carry in one hand, and 12 or more for intricate locks that require precision manipulations in four dimensions. She may also have to make a Physique check if she has to move something particularly heavy.

Pre-Cognition: Quadra can study a situation with her enhanced perception and apply elementary (at least to her) hyper-kinematics, making sense in four dimensions of situations that seem inherently unpredictable in three. This takes a single round and requires an Expertise check of Difficulty 9, granting her a +2 bonus to all checks for a number of rounds equal to the amount she passed by.

Transdimensional Twist: Quadra can grab an enemy's limbs and twist them into impossible positions in the fourth dimension. As such, her unarmed strikes do 1d4 damage instead of the normal 1. As long as this is the only active (i.e., perception or dodging don't count) use of her power this round, she also gets a +2 bonus to her attack. If Pre-Cognition is active, this bonus stacks with the one she gains from it.

Weaknesses:

Line of Sight: Due to her enhanced sight, Quadra is actually more vulnerable to gaze and other line-of-sight-based attacks, as she cannot help but see "around" something that may protect a normal viewer. All enemies trying to use such attacks against her can target her Resilience or Resolve as normal, and additionally get a +2 bonus.
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Would my Tenebrous players be interested in finishing off the adventure at some point soonish?

While not a player, I would love to see the adventure's conclusion!

Quote from: Steerpike
Would my Tenebrous players be interested in finishing off the adventure at some point soonish?

Now that finals are done for me, certainly.