Introductory GURPS Game: Players Wanted

[Humabout]

Before I even try to sanity check that, let me ask you a few questions:

You're a gnome.  Why aren't you living with other gnomes in the foothills?
What is your rank within society?  A freeman?  A minor noble? etc.
How rooted are you in Zalhrada?  Do you maintain a shop or store or anything?

[EDIT]
So after openning the spoiler, I notice two things immediately:  You're one of the smartest people in Zalhrada and you're only slightly less dextrous than a cat (Lower DX and High Manual Dexterity might be more fitting)?

As for the magic end of things, why do you need Ritual Adept if you're just an inventor?  It seems kind of excessive.  As for the path set, that makes sense.  I'd just keep your actual working tinted toward blue magic.  You could take Higher Purpose (Blue Magic) to represent a focus on it.  You'd get up to +3 (for three levels, and you can't exceed a total of 3 levels across all HIgher Purposes for magic) to rolls to cast blue spells.

Also, you're ignoring Doodad and Gizmos?  That's surprising.  If you look to getting Quick Gadgeteer [50], it will work thusly:  You can adapt items for use as other items, with a successful Engineering roll of an appropriate specialty (at -1 per $250 of value of the final item), and your Doodad and Gizmo levels are uncapped.

Your skillset seems like a wonky mishmash of randomness.  Lots of sciences (ok, i get you're an inventor), blowpipe?!?!?, crossbow, some melee weapon skill (do you actually have any training in using it?  If so, what martial art did you study?), and lockpicking?  It looks weird.  Especially considering that you have professional to expert levels of expertise in all of it except swimming.

Which Engineering skill do you have, by the way?  What sort of things do you invent? 

So you invent.  Do you build the stuff yourself?  If so, where are the skills to represent that?  Mechanic, Leatherworking, Seweing, Smith, Carpentry, etc.

You're forgoing Luck?  And you play with explosives?  Speaking of that, you'll need a license from the city to do that.  It's a 1 point perk and if you cause any problems for the city or your neighbors, it'll be revoked (you won't get that point back, either, without RPing it out).

[Seraph]

I am rather amused by this trio shaping up. 

Kreios' character sounds like the


to my


Meanwhile Numinous' character is a nominally more masculine (but less competent) version of


Inventor, Monster Hunter, and the Aristocrat

[Humabout]

It should be one of the weirdest parties i've ever encountered.  Hehehe.  It'll be interesting to see you three running around the city and countryside for sure!

By the way, how do you all know each other?  I'd prefer if we don't have to blow a session just getting everyone to work together.

[Numinous]

It should be one of the weirdest parties I've ever encountered.  Hehehe.  It'll be interesting to see you three running around the city and countryside for sure!

By the way, how do you all know each other?  I'd prefer if we don't have to blow a session just getting everyone to work together.

Seraph, feel free to reject this in whole or in part.  I imagine that at some point in time in the past, Alexander had a monster problem with the catacombs beneath his home.  In much the same way as we would call a plumber, Alexander's father called the church.  Malachi was dispatched to dispose of the bohemian vampire squatting in the family crypts, and reducing property values for the estate.  Alexander of course tagged along, like the precocious youth he once was, being thoroughly irritating and observing the practices of a monster hunter.  Finding the career too messy and brutish, he decided instead to advance his studies in the ivory tower of the occult.  Once he found himself in need of more money, he decided that the "job" he was most qualified for, from an outside perspective, was monster disposal, and he has set about persuading the church to acquire Malachi as his assistant in this new venture.

[kreios]

Thank you very much, that's pretty much exactly what I meant by 'Sanity Check'. Reworked.

Before I even try to sanity check that, let me ask you a few questions:

You're a gnome.  Why aren't you living with other gnomes in the foothills?
What is your rank within society?  A freeman?  A minor noble? etc.
How rooted are you in Zalhrada?  Do you maintain a shop or store or anything?

- Gone into the city to gain a better technological basis? Or, alternatively, there was that small incident with the black powder... yes, I think I like that. Basically, an experiment went wrong, and to start over, he went to the city.
- Rank I'd say to be of a 'normal' citizen, freeman.
- Idea'd be to possess a small shop, producing very, very specialized gadgets, and usually only in very small quantities. Maybe couple it with a regular blacksmith and business partner, who does the administration and the boring tasks.

[EDIT]
So after openning the spoiler, I notice two things immediately:  You're one of the smartest people in Zalhrada and you're only slightly less dextrous than a cat (Lower DX and High Manual Dexterity might be more fitting)?

As for the magic end of things, why do you need Ritual Adept if you're just an inventor?  It seems kind of excessive.  As for the path set, that makes sense.  I'd just keep your actual working tinted toward blue magic.  You could take Higher Purpose (Blue Magic) to represent a focus on it.  You'd get up to +3 (for three levels, and you can't exceed a total of 3 levels across all HIgher Purposes for magic) to rolls to cast blue spells.

Corrected dexterity to 10 and 2 high manual. Forgot about manual dexterity.
I redesigned magic to follow all paths at IQ-3, but with three ranks in blue magic, to better follow the purpose. The basic idea with Ritual Adept, and with the whole skill selection is that the guy is extremely talented, but also very unskilled. He came by without really learning anything, which will probably change soon, though...

Also, you're ignoring Doodad and Gizmos?  That's surprising.  If you look to getting Quick Gadgeteer [50], it will work thusly:  You can adapt items for use as other items, with a successful Engineering roll of an appropriate specialty (at -1 per $250 of value of the final item), and your Doodad and Gizmo levels are uncapped.

Your skillset seems like a wonky mishmash of randomness.  Lots of sciences (ok, i get you're an inventor), blowpipe?!?!?, crossbow, some melee weapon skill (do you actually have any training in using it?  If so, what martial art did you study?), and lockpicking?  It looks weird.  Especially considering that you have professional to expert levels of expertise in all of it except swimming.

Picked up Quick Gadgeteer, maybe Gizmos later.
I mostly missed (of course...) said skills, added them now. Blowpipe, crossbow and melee skill were meant to show a familiarity with those items. I dropped them, let's work off defaults!
Lockpicking was meant to symbolise the ability to pick locks due to having designed several locks, and the ability to design them in the first place. I think there is no locksmith skill.

Which Engineering skill do you have, by the way?  What sort of things do you invent? 

So you invent.  Do you build the stuff yourself?  If so, where are the skills to represent that?  Mechanic, Leatherworking, Seweing, Smith, Carpentry, etc.

You're forgoing Luck?  And you play with explosives?  Speaking of that, you'll need a license from the city to do that.  It's a 1 point perk and if you cause any problems for the city or your neighbors, it'll be revoked (you won't get that point back, either, without RPing it out).

Well, engineering I've added two now (Materials and Clockwork), though not sure about them. Added the rest, too.
Invention is thought to be a very mishmash, maybe like some renaissance inventors, plus trying to infuse them with magic.

Explosives without luck, you're right. Added that, too. Though, with the eye... ;-)
I've not yet added the perk, but will do that later.
Sheet now looks like this:
[spoiler]
Attributes   +65   -40 / +105
   St      8      -20
   Dex      10      +0
   IQ      15      +100
   HT      9      -10
   HP      9      0
   Will      15      0
   Per      13      -10
   FP      9      0
   Basic Speed   5      +5

Languages:   +3
   English      Native(lit.)   +3

Advantages:   +140
Racial:
   Acute Smell/Taste 2      +4
   Discriminatory Smell      +15
   Green Thumb         +5
   Nicht Vision 3         +5
   Resistance to poison (+3)   +5
   Widget Worker 2         +10
   Gnomish Gifts         +1
   Huge Weapons         +1
Other:
   High Manual Dexterity 2      +10
   Photographic Memory      +10
   Less Sleep 2         +4
   Intuitive Mathematician      +5
   Quick Gadgeteer         +50
   Luck            +15

   Perks:
      None yet, Licenses...



Disadvantages:   -78
Racial:
   Curious (6)         -10
   Reputation (-2, Inventor)   -10
Other:
   Cowardice (12)         -10
   Obsession (Make Impact)      -10
   One Eye            -15
   Overconfidence         -5
   Skinny            -5
   Workaholic         -5
   Appearance: Ugly (-2)      -8   Scars

      

Skills:      +28
   Alchemy IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Armoury Missile Weapons (IQ/A)   +1   IQ+1      16 Talent
   Carpentry IQ/E         +1   IQ      15
   Chemistry IQ/H         +1   IQ-2      13
   Climbing DX/A         +1   DX-1      9
   Engineer (Materials) IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Engineer (Clockwork) IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Explosive (Demolition) IQ/A   +1   IQ-1      14
   Hiking HT/A         +1   HT-1      8
   Hidden Lore (Magic) IQ/A   +1   IQ-1      14
   Intelligence Analysis IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Leatherworking DX/E      +1   DX      10
   Lockpick IQ/A         +1   IQ+1      16 Talent
   Machinist IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Mathematics (applied) IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Mechanic (Clockwork) IQ/A   +1   IQ-1      14
   Metallurgy IQ/H         +1   IQ-2      13
   Occultism IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Physics IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Poisons IQ/H         +1   IQ-2      13
   Research IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Scrounging Per/E      +1   Per+2      15 Talent
   Sewing DX/E         +1   DX      10
   Smith (Iron) IQ/A      +1   IQ-1      14
   Stealth   DX/A         +1   DX-1      9
   Swimming HT/E         +1   HT      9
   Symbol Drawing IQ/H      +1   IQ-2      13
   Traps            +1   IQ+2      17 Talent
Magic:    +80
   Magery 1         +15
   Ritual Adept         +40
   Higher Purpose (Blue Magic) +3   +15
   Thaumatology IQ/VH      +1   IQ-3      12
   Body IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Chance IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Crossroads IQ/VH      +1   IQ-3      12
   Energy IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Magic IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Matter IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Mind IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Spirit IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Undead IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
[/spoiler]
With 12 points left.
Though I'm thinking about maybe dropping gnome and going with human, but let's see.

For direct criticism (and questions), I'll be in IRC for a bit.
Again, thank you for your input.

It should be one of the weirdest parties I've ever encountered.  Hehehe.  It'll be interesting to see you three running around the city and countryside for sure!

By the way, how do you all know each other?  I'd prefer if we don't have to blow a session just getting everyone to work together.

My idea would be for Malachi to have come by to get some gadget made, or maybe needed explosives to do the job. As for Alexander, how about needing to identify a gadget to sell it?
Alternatively, Kreios (going with Kreios for now) could have tagged along at the Catacomb-Thing, to blow those things if necessary. Maybe his license comes from that?

[Humabout]

Before I respond to Kreios, something about SH's post just kept bugging me, and then it hit home.  The girl looks too competent.  I have been picturing Alexander more as this:



and Keiros like this:



Will edit with a response to Kreios in a few minutes.  This will take some typing and thinking (possibly in that order!)

[EDIT]
Background looks good!

I redesigned magic to follow all paths at IQ-3, but with three ranks in blue magic, to better follow the purpose. The basic idea with Ritual Adept, and with the whole skill selection is that the guy is extremely talented, but also very unskilled. He came by without really learning anything, which will probably change soon, though...

Do recall that a score of 12 - 13 is considered sufficient to earn a living with.  If you're envisioning that level of skill, then you're on the right track; otherwise, I think the only way for you to drop your scores low enough (and keep that crazy IQ) is to increase Thaumatology and run path skills at default.  I leave that up to you, though.

My concern with Ritual Adept is that you're going to try to go blaster mage style (a bad idea with this system, anyway, but....), and that just doesn't sound like it suits your concept.  That's 40 points that could be applied to being more Doc Brown.  I guess my question is really what aspects of Ritual Adept are the most appealing?  It can be broken down into it's parts pretty easily (I think there's actually a breakdown in the book.  If not, PK has posted it on the forums for certain).

Blowpipe, crossbow and melee skill were meant to show a familiarity with those items. I dropped them, let's work off defaults!

You don't have to drop them.  They just looked horrifically out of place from what description you'd given - particularly Blowpipe.  It'd be reasonable to have or learn some sort of fighting skills, unless you're intentionally going for the classic nerd :p  Heck, you could make de-nerding yourself a character goal!  It wouldn't be hard to find a teacher, but the training might kill you :D

Intelligence Analysis IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13

Gwhuh what?  Just speaking of things not explained in the back story or fitting to the core concept, why does he have one skill iconic to detectives/investigators and no others?  I stuck that one in Malachi's sheet because his job explicitly consists of him hunting down things (which requires analyzing clues as to what it is, where it is, and how to kill it).  I'm not sure how this skill fits into your concept.  Not saying ot drop it, just asking for an explaination.  It strikes me more as something best run off of default to your impressive IQ.

to blow those things if necessary. Maybe his license comes from that

Part 1.  Please read Explosions in Enclosed Spaces on page 181 of GURPS High Tech before making any booms in a dungeon.  The consequences are pretty nasty.

Part 2.  Blowing up things inside the city is the sort of thing that gets your license revoked, not granted.  I had figured you got the license because you were refining the serpentine powder used by the city's cannon toward the corned powder the dwarves use (which allows them to actually use personal firearms, I might add).  The dwarves withold this from Zalhrada, though, so the city is certainly interested in gaining this secret for themselves.  By no means have you invented corned powder, but your research has been sufficiently fruitful for the city to grant you a license.  Feel free to keep that or come up with another reason!

[Seraph]

Seraph, feel free to reject this in whole or in part.  I imagine that at some point in time in the past, Alexander had a monster problem with the catacombs beneath his home.  In much the same way as we would call a plumber, Alexander's father called the church.  Malachi was dispatched to dispose of the bohemian vampire squatting in the family crypts, and reducing property values for the estate.  Alexander of course tagged along, like the precocious youth he once was, being thoroughly irritating and observing the practices of a monster hunter.  Finding the career too messy and brutish, he decided instead to advance his studies in the ivory tower of the occult.  Once he found himself in need of more money, he decided that the "job" he was most qualified for, from an outside perspective, was monster disposal, and he has set about persuading the church to acquire Malachi as his assistant in this new venture.

The idea of Malachi being ALEXANDER'S assistant is kind of hilarious.  It would actually give a decent reason why Mal has to stick around, and would make him very grumpy having to not only put up with the annoying little shit of a rich kid, but also have to play second fiddle to the foolhardy boy as well.  Malachi would do it if the Church commanded, but I expect would be inclined to undermine or ignore Alexander's so-called authority on a regular basis.  There would be some conflict between them, but probably not enough to result in an actual PvP, so it would be a somewhat dysfunctional arrangement, but one that still kind of worked.

Before I respond to Kreios, something about SH's post just kept bugging me, and then it hit home.  The girl looks too competent.  I have been picturing Alexander more as this:



and Keiros like this:

I was simply noting the parallels in our little party to the movie Van Helsing.  I did note that she was too competent to really apply when I posted the image.

[Humabout]

I haven't seen Van Helsing, so I didn't get what you were going for.  The image for you seemed pretty fitting, though.

[Seraph]

I haven't seen Van Helsing, so I didn't get what you were going for.  The image for you seemed pretty fitting, though.

And I admit that the picture representing Kreios' character didn't really show it, but he was an inventor.  Who was also a friar.  Couldn't find a good picture of him in his workshop.

[kreios]

As a note, I'm dropping the Gnome Race, and going with human (normal crazy) inventor

and Keiros like this:
[spoiler]

[/spoiler]

I strongly resent that! My character does not wear glasses.

You don't have to drop them.  They just looked horrifically out of place from what description you'd given - particularly Blowpipe.  It'd be reasonable to have or learn some sort of fighting skills, unless you're intentionally going for the classic nerd :p  Heck, you could make de-nerding yourself a character goal!  It wouldn't be hard to find a teacher, but the training might kill you :D

Changed to quarterstaff.

Intelligence Analysis IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13

And gone.

to blow those things if necessary. Maybe his license comes from that
Part 1.  Please read Explosions in Enclosed Spaces on page 181 of GURPS High Tech before making any booms in a dungeon.  The consequences are pretty nasty.

Part 2.  Blowing up things inside the city is the sort of thing that gets your license revoked, not granted.  I had figured you got the license because you were refining the serpentine powder used by the city's cannon toward the corned powder the dwarves use (which allows them to actually use personal firearms, I might add).  The dwarves withold this from Zalhrada, though, so the city is certainly interested in gaining this secret for themselves.  By no means have you invented corned powder, but your research has been sufficiently fruitful for the city to grant you a license.  Feel free to keep that or come up with another reason!

Read about the enclosed space rule. Got very funny ideas using magic to form force walls.
The license part was thought to be like that: Alexander's father wants those beasties gone. He decides to hide Malachi. He really want them gone, so he hires Kreios, too, to blow the place if necessary, and gets him an explosives permit for that, due to corruption.

Anyway, new sheet looks like this, with some few changes:
[spoiler]

Attributes   +65   -40 / +105
   St      8      -20
   Dex      10      +0
   IQ      15      +100
   HT      9      -10
   HP      9      0
   Will      15      0
   Per      13      -10
   FP      9      0
   Basic Speed   5      +5

Languages:   +3
   English      Native(lit.)   +3

Advantages:   +106
Other:
   High Manual Dexterity 4      +20
   Photographic Memory      +10
   Less Sleep 2         +4
   Intuitive Mathematician      +5
   Quick Gadgeteer         +50
   Luck            +15

   Perks:
      Explosives License   +1
      Style familiarity   +1   Quarterstaff



Disadvantages:   -59
   Curious (12)         -5
   Cowardice (12)         -10
   Obsession (Make Impact)      -10
   One Eye            -15
   Overconfidence         -5
   Skinny            -5
   Workaholic         -5
   Appearance: Unattractive (-1)   -4

      

Skills:      +27
   Alchemy IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Armoury Missile Weapons (IQ/A)   +1   IQ-2      14
   Carpentry IQ/E         +1   IQ      15
   Chemistry IQ/H         +1   IQ-2      13
   Climbing DX/A         +1   DX-1      9
   Engineer (Materials) IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Engineer (Clockwork) IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Explosive (Demolition) IQ/A   +1   IQ-1      14
   Hiking HT/A         +1   HT-1      8
   Hidden Lore (Magic) IQ/A   +1   IQ-1      14
   Leatherworking DX/E      +1   DX      10
   Lockpick IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Machinist IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Mathematics (applied) IQ/H   +1   IQ-2      13
   Mechanic (Clockwork) IQ/A   +1   IQ-1      14
   Metallurgy IQ/H         +1   IQ-2      13
   Occultism IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Physics IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Poisons IQ/H         +1   IQ-2      13
   Research IQ/A         +1   IQ-1      14
   Scrounging Per/E      +1   Per      13
   Sewing DX/E         +1   DX      10
   Smith (Iron) IQ/A      +1   IQ-1      14
   Staff DX/A         +1   DX-1      9
   Stealth   DX/A         +1   DX-1      9
   Swimming HT/E         +1   HT      9
   Symbol Drawing IQ/H      +1   IQ-2      13
   Traps            +1   IQ      15

Magic:    +80
   Magery 1         +15
   Ritual Adept         +40
   Higher Purpose (Blue Magic) +3   +15
   Thaumatology IQ/VH      +1   IQ-3      12
   Body IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Chance IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Crossroads IQ/VH      +1   IQ-3      12
   Energy IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Magic IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Matter IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Mind IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Spirit IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
   Undead IQ/VH         +1   IQ-3      12
[/spoiler]

28 points are left, to be spent maybe towards an additional point of luck, and social ties, though I'm not sure where exactly, at the moment.
Plus, if the campaign is planned to involve many fights, dropping cowardice.

[Humabout]

HP 9 should cost you 2 points.  Your ST is 8.

The amount of combat in game largely depends on what ya'll try to do.  If you start fights or go looking for them, you'll find them aplenty.  If you try to avoid them, you should be reasonably safe, as long as you don't botch a roll.  Remember you can always make potions of bravery, too, or cast spells on yourself to pluck up your courage.

[Numinous]

I'm working on a short piece of writing that will lay out my vision for how we know each other as a party.  It is a portrayal of events that captures Alexander's current affairs while recollecting his experience with Malachi, as a young boy.  I'm not sure how Kreios fits in, however I imagine he would be easily integrated as a contractor in the business of eliminating evil, with explosives most likely.

[kreios]

HP 9 should cost you 2 points.  Your ST is 8.

Corrected.

The amount of combat in game largely depends on what ya'll try to do.  If you start fights or go looking for them, you'll find them aplenty.  If you try to avoid them, you should be reasonably safe, as long as you don't botch a roll.  Remember you can always make potions of bravery, too, or cast spells on yourself to pluck up your courage.

In that case, it probably depends on the others, but I guess I'll keep it.

As for allies, contacts and so on, I thought about three people. One who's in a business partnership with him, and basically administrates and makes smaller things, one exotic merchandise trader, and maybe a research wizard, if things like that exist.

I'll take a look at equipment, too, later.

And, by the way, I've written a short piece about him, but in a third person view:
[spoiler]
"You really need that thing, don't you?", I asked. The other man, face hidden inside his cowl's shadow, nodded.
"Well, the good news is, I know just the man you're looking for. One who can build something so delicate, so precise... but there is a problem with that." The Other leaned forward. "Let me tell you a story... the story of how I met him."
"A few months back, I really needed a... let's just say I needed a special item, not unlike yours. Let's call it a rose. I went around the city for two weeks, looking for someone who could get me one. Blacksmiths, merchants for the more exotic needs, mages, alchemists... I could go on. I probably was one of the few who actually knew all of the merchants, all of the craftsmen in the city, and none could get me my... my rose.
But, as my luck would have it, one of them - can't really say I remember who - sent me to this guy's workshop. Genius, he said. But he didn't warn me, and that's what he should've done. That's why I'm warning you. Went there the next day, by myself, and nearly didn't find it. You know the slums, by the North Road? Spent two hours there, trying to find that damn house. Went past it two, three times, until I finally noticed it. Just a small sign there. "Inventor. Unique Items, custom made." The door even narrower than the rest in the quarter, and the whole building just looked decayed, more so than the surroundings. And, even worse when I knocked and he opened... Well, he didn't open at once. I had to knock three times, and wait nearly fifteen minutes. The door opened with the creaking sound of years without even a drop of oil, and there he was... I'm not making this too suspenseful, am I?" He didn't even bother answering.
"He's tall, and he's skinny. That's the first thing you'll notice. Immediately afterwards comes the face. Quite attractive once, and maybe still is - if you like scars, and only one eye. An experiment gone wrong, he later told me. I don't want to know what he was experiencing with. Not my nature, if you catch my meaning. But it looked like if he were a bit unluckier, he wouldn't have a face like that, he wouldn't have any.
Young, he was, too. Wouldn't have thought him to be old like me, but that guy looked like he could've been my son. 'Course, I'd have raised my son a bit politer, you know? He just listened to what I wanted - didn't even make notes! - and only asked two or three questions. Afterwards, he simply told me to go, and to come back tomorrow. Nothing whether he'd make my cross... my rose, or how much it was. Nothing. And, when I asked, he told me he wouldn't have told me to come back if he wouldn't have made it by then! Bloody arrogant, that guy. But he didn't ask me for an advance payment like so many charlatans, so I actually came back the day after. And had to wait, again.
He didn't leave me standing in that anteroom, that looked like a store decaying for a decade, this time. Instead, we went down to what I think was his own private part of the catacombs. I haven't seen all of it, but I think he's blasted most entrances, and then bricked them up. I saw a room full of alchemical instruments, another dark and barred with a heavy door with "Explosives. Come in and have a blasted time" written on it. A forge, and many more things like that. And, he has this one, big room inside. Maybe 50 yards by 50, and five to ten high. Blasted, with black walls, chips and and knocks on the walls, and what I'm pretty sure were scores of protective magic in the walls. Why he'd need something like that, I don't know. He had my... my lily there, and some dummies I could try it on. I was... well, I can say as much... I was very excited. Except for the price. I don't know if it's his business strategy - probably not, considering all the other things -, but he only told me the price once I saw it, used it, and knew it should be mine. I paid it, in full, mind you, but I really wished I would've asked before." The other man now was leaned back.
"Anyway, that's my experience with that guy. He's a genius, and he'll build you what you want. But don't waltz in there like I did, or it'll cost you very, very much."
[/spoiler]

[Seraph]

Well, I was thinking that either at some point in the past, Malachi had commissioned some device from Kreios, or will need something for an upcoming mission.  Or both.  Maybe they've worked together before.  Would Kreios possibly have a contract with the Church?

And I like the idea of Mal having once cleared out the Blackwell estate of it's vampire problem. 

[Humabout]

[note]
Alchemy Workshop cost and weight is derived from the cost and weight of an Alchemist's Kit ($125, 25 lbs.) multiplied by the same factors as an Electronics Repair Kit to get an Electronics Repair Workshop (x25, x50) in GURPS High Tech

A Basic Magical Workspace Kit has a price adjusted for reduced base wealth equal to ($300, 20 lbs.); a Good Magical Workspace Kit is ($1,500, 200 lbs.); and a Fine Magical Workspace Kit has ($6,000, 2,000 lbs.).  See GURPS Monster Hunters 1 - Champions for details.
[/note]

I like the writeup!  I'd definitely say he has an alchemy workshop ($4,375, 1,250 lbs.), and I'd say you could use it at a -2 familiarity penalty as a Basic Magical Workspace, as despite having the hardware for brewing up magic, it doesn't have the oddball ingredients a magical kit would.

So for contacts, I was thinking these (any of them could be combined in a single person; one failed appearance roll would only mean he doesn't have time to use that specific skill for you):

Contact (Griswald; Accounting-12; 12 or Less, x2; Usually Reliable, x2) [4]
Contact (Griswald; Administration-12; 12 or Less, x2; Usually Reliable, x2) [4]
Contact (Griswald; Blacksmith-12; 12 or Less, x2; Usually Reliable, x2) [4]

Contact (Benny the Fence; Perveyor of Exotic - and not always legal - Merchandise; 12 or Less, x2; Somewhat Reliable, x1) [2]
Contact Group (Philosopher-Wizard; Lore!-15;  6 or Less, x1/2; Usually Reliable, x2) [10]

All of that would add up to 24 points.  Feel free to tinker with and tweak it!