Alchabitius

Matthew Wright Lucifuge

Attributes

Intelligence 3, Wits 2, Resolve 4; Strength 2, Dexterity 2, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 2, Composure 3

Skills

Mental: *Academics 3 (Research 4, Religion 4), Investigation 2, *Occult 4 (Demonic Powers 5), Politics 1 (Bureaucracy 2) Physical: Brawl 1, Weaponry 2 Social: Animal Ken 1, *Empathy 3 (Motives 4), Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2, Socialize 1, Subterfuge 2

Merits

Professional Training (Occult Expert) 3, Status: Lucifuge 1, Endowment: Castigations 3, Interdisciplinary Specialty (Demonic Powers) 1, Library (Occult) 2, Esoteric Armory 1, Eye For The Strange 2, Resources 2, Staff 1, Multilingual 1, Language (Italian) 1, Indominable 2

Advantages

Health: 7, Willpower: 7, Size: 5, Speed: 9, Defense: 2 (Armor: 0), Initiative: 5

Integrity

Rating: 8

Current Conditions

Matthew is not out as a gay man Embarrassing Secret A secret; could turn into Notoriety if revealed. Possible Sources: Any action that has to be kept secret for fear of ostracism. Resolution: The character’s secret is made public, or the character does whatever is necessary to make sure it never comes to light. Occult Community Connected (Persistent) You have an in with a certain group. +2 to pertinent rolls, or discard condition for exceptional success Possible Sources: Exceptional Success: Politics, Socialize (only requires 3 successes with Allies or Contacts). Resolution: The character loses her membership or otherwise loses her standing with the group. Beat: The character is asked to perform a favor for the group that inconveniences her.

Background

Season 1 Background

Matthew has spent the last 13-ish months in Milan, Italy learning how to keep his inner demon in check, quite literally. He has had very little contact with the other members of the Dark Room exorcism, only a monthly phone call to the bookstore to help with month end business, of which most of the call is business. During any free time he had from his learning he spent cultivating esoteric contacts in Italy predominantly but he has also make quick trips into France, Switzerland, and West Germany. He also made purchases for the bookstore from those trips as well as from local sources, which he ships back every 3 months or so. He did buy a baby gift for Harry and Nancy which arrived a couple months late and was included in one of the book shipments.

Rumors

"Something bad must happened in his past, whenever I ask he changes the subject."
"He hasn't been around since those weird murders last year but his store is still open. His staff says he's in Italy touring universities and museums. Must be nice."
"He almost forty and isn't married. I wonder if his past trouble was a woman?"

Known Facts

• Matthew has been out of the country for over a year, his friends say he's been in Italy visiting libraries, museums, and universities.

Appearance Stuff

• Age: 37 (9 if you are being super technical)
• Height: 5'10"
• Weight: 230-ish, he tends to forget to eat a lot more often than he did before.
• Description: Matthew is getting older, his beard and hair are starting to turn gray, and he's starting to get a little chunky. He's kind of a bit clumsy, but not a klutz. His grey eyes are kindly and has deep laugh lines around them.

Personality & Lifestyle

Virtue: Altruistic It's rarely about me Helping others when I am aware that they need it, even if the cost to myself is great. Helping people even if their words or actions have brought me harm, if by helping them the group succeeds. Vice: Cruel Hurtful shade comments based on peoples personal fears Aspirations: List five short-to-medium term goals for your character. These may be in any arena of his life she considers important. Form more and stronger connections with the supernatural/occult/paranormal community Build up my Esoteric Armory Have Apollo's Athenaeum become a known and reputable place for people in the know to come for actual esoteric items. Integrity: 8 Breaking Points: Abandoning someone to a supernatural predator Causing death or crippling injury to a mundane with my power Losing someone I care about to either sudden death or "disappearance" Being isolated in a forest A child I'm familiar with being abducted or maliciously hurt Equipment Possessions: Leather satchel Always has a flashlight and spare set of batteries Spare set of shop and house keys Books he's currently reading Small selection of 45's for the record player in the store. Jazz, Big Band, Country, and Classical Cat treats A pocket watch A Volvo 164, in burgundy Sansui Stereo System Whole library worth of Occult and Paranormal books Weapons: Matthew's Sword Eerie sword that looks like an elongated Gladius with a round guard and an elongated hilt with a pommel that comes to a point. Sword: Damage: +3 Initiative: –3 Strength: 2 Size: 3 Availability: ••• Effects: +1 Initiative Other Notes:

Apartment B19 Appolo's Antenaem Job: Apollo's Athenaeum - Owner/Manager Home: He lives by himself in a two bedroom apartment on the 5th floor of Maple Shade. Tidy. Everything has a proper place. I clean once a week. Including the bathroom. There is always a cat at his home if he is home, sometimes even three. Habits & Personality Quirks: He's always willing to help you find the answer you are looking for, kind of busy body like. His mood can be unpredictable when it comes to people. Sometimes he likes to surround himself with people, other times he wants to be left alone. Sexuality & Romance: After Paul, Matthew does not form emotional connections with men easily. In fact has not had a lover since. Matthew is not openly gay. It's just one more weird thing about him he gets uncomfortable about at times. Matthew has been celibate since leaving for Milan Style: Hygine: He is always clean. Almost germaphobicly clean. Brushes his teeth after waking up, before bed, and after every meal. His beard is always trimmed. His nails manicured. His clothes are always clean. Clothing: Matthew's clothing has been influenced by his year in Milan, he wears more fashionable jackets with slacks now. When he's not working he often wears jeans and t-shirts, shorts if the weather permits it. Jewelry: Just a wristwatch. Tattoo: Matthew's Dark Room mark is on his right shoulder. Scars: Both of Matthew's forearms are riddled with scars, some of them seem fairly new. Food: He brought back a couple cookbooks from Italy and he's become quite proficient at Italian cooking. Mostly has wine and scotch available to drink. Entertainment: Reads: Books on occultism, many Crowley books. Most of the psychic books have been replaced with books on demonology. A lot of it is rubbish, but there are a few that seem to have hidden truths. He does own a few rare books that have much more reliable information in them, they are very well taken care of and he doesn't let just anybody read them. TV: Matthew gave his TV to Haywood Music: Classical music, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughn, Duke Ellington, Louie Armstrong, Peggy Lee, Dinah Washington, Billie Holiday, Lena Horne, Italian opera.

Conditions

Embarrassing Secret: Matthew is not an openly gay man.
Connected: Matthew has developed strong ties to the occult community.

Merit Details

Status: Lucifuge (•) The Truth Faction (•) You can purchase the Castigation Endowment. Endowment: Castigations (•••) Castigation Endowments represent the knowledge of the rites of the Lucifuge. For every dot in this Merit, the character can learn one more rite up to a maximum of five Castigation rites at a time. Switching out rites requires a rededication of the character’s energy, though, and that takes time. The player rolls Resolve + Occult as an extended action. The target number of successes is 20 minus character’s rating in Endowments (Castigation), and the player makes one roll per day in which the character spends at least four hours studying, fasting, flagellating or otherwise preparing himself for the change. As the total number of successes climbs, the character suffers nightmares, sweats, spontaneous nosebleeds and other ailments, and then finally peace as the change sets in. Whenever a Lucifuge rolls an exceptional success on the activation roll for a Castigation rite, he must make a breaking point check. If he fails he must take a condition determined by the Storyteller. Professional Training: Occult Expert (•••) Academics, Occult, and Empathy Effect: Your character has extensive training in a particular profession, which offers distinct advantages in a handful of fields. Mark two Asset Skills on your character sheet. The advantages of Professional Training relate directly to those Asset Skills. Networking: (•) Take two dots of Contacts relating to that field. Rare Book Dealer Paranormal Author Continuing Education: (••) When making a roll with her Asset Skills, she benefits from the 9-again quality. Breadth of Knowledge: (•••) Choose a third Asset Skill, and take two Specialties in your character’s Asset Skills. (Empathy , (Academics: Religion), (Empathy: Motives)) Library (Occult) (••) Effect: Your character has access to a plethora of information about a given topic. On any extended roll involving Occult, add the dots in this Merit. Specialty: Witchcraft (Not Protected) - When researching topics that fall in line with the topic, the library grants one use of the Rote Ability quality to one Research roll in the extended test. Esoteric Armory: (•) Effect: Your character is the go-to guy when one needs a knife carved from the bone of a martyred saint, a hawthorn stake, rock salt shotgun shells, the powdered remains of cremated suicides or any number of other things. No matter how strange the need, you’ve got it covered. After successfully researching an ephemeral entity’s Bane, compare your dots in this Merit to the entity’s Rank. If the merit is equal to or greater than its Rank, you’ve got what you need in your Armory. A one-dot Esoteric Armory can fit in a large bag. Eye for the Strange: (••) Prerequisite: Resolve ••, Occult • Effect: While your character does not necessarily possess a breadth of knowledge about the supernatural, she knows the otherworldly when she sees it. By perusing evidence, she can determine whether something comes from natural or supernatural origins. Roll Intelligence + Composure. With a success, the Storyteller must tell you if the scene has a supernatural cause, and provide one piece of found information that confirms the answer. With an exceptional success, she must give you a bit of supernatural folklore that suggests what type of creature caused the problem. If the problem was mundane, an exceptional success gives an ongoing +2 to all rolls to investigate the event, due to her redoubled certainty in its natural causation.

Interdisciplinary Specialty: (•) (Demonic Powers) Prerequisite: Skill at ••• or higher with a Specialty Effect: You can apply the +1 from Demonic Powers on any Skill with at least one dot, provided it’s justifiable within the scope of the fiction. Resources: (••) Effect: This Merit reflects your character’s disposable income. Two dots is a comfortable, middle class wage. Staff: (•) Effect: Your character has a crew of workers or assistants at his disposal. For every dot in this Merit, choose one type of assistant, and one Skill. At any reasonable time, his staff can take actions using that Skill. These actions automatically garner a single success. While not useful in contested actions, this guarantees success on minor, mundane activities. Multilingual: (•) Latin and Greek Effect: Each time you purchase this Merit, choose two languages. Your character can speak conversationally in those languages. With an Intelligence + Academics roll, he may also read enough of the language to understand context. If you purchase the Language Merit for either of these languages, replace the Multilingual language. Indomitable: (••) Prerequisite: Resolve ••• Your character possesses an iron will. The powers of the supernatural have little bearing on her behavior. She can stand up to a vampire’s mind control, a witch’s charms, or a ghost’s gifts of fright. Any time a supernatural creature uses a power to influence your character’s thoughts or emotions, add two dice to the dice pool to contest it. If the roll is resisted, instead subtract two dice from the monster’s dice pool. Note that this only affects mental influence and manipulation from a supernatural origin. A vampire with a remarkable Manipulation + Persuasion score is just as likely to convince your character to do something using mundane tricks. Language: Italian (•) Effect: Your character is skilled with an additional language, beyond her native tongue. Choose a language each time you buy this Merit. Your character can speak, read, and write in that language. The Dark Mark: (•) Each of the hunters who took part in the slaying of Bune and the freeing of Natalie's ghost now bear a mark in a strange shape on their bodies (Matthew has determined that this is a binding sigil that incorporates part of Bune's goetic sigil). Though it is indelible as a tattoo, this mark appears to be smudged black coal-dust or graphite. Effect: At one dot, the bearer of the Mark may transport themselves into the Dark Room in the following fashion: By touching any wall in the Maple Shade; By spending a point of Willpower; By not being seen by anyone who does not bear the Mark. Those who do this black out for a moment, and come back to their senses just before they topple over. Snapping back to their senses, they are within the strange circle of sigils in the center of the Dark Room. Returning to that circle allows them to leave the room again. Those departing may choose to not spend a Willpower, which causes them to appear right where they departed originally (although if someone is there watching, they fail to depart), or they may spend another Willpower and appear touching any wall in the Maple Shade they wish.

Castigations

Active Castigations marked in Orange

Available Castigation

Calling Forth the Pit

Familiar

Gaze of the Penitent

Hellfire

Infernal Visions

Mandate of Hell

Mark of the Beast (HtV:SS)

Sense of the Unrighteous

Shackles of Pandemonium

Tongue of Babel

Friends and Family

Family

Michael Wright	Karen Mallon	Daniel Wright
Brother Born February 29, 1940. My younger twin brother. Deceased Michael was born 15 minutes after I was, but made up for that in every way up until the day he disappeared. We were mirror twins, Michael and I were reflections of each other. My organs are on the "correct" side, while all of his were mirrored to mine, but unless you were really looking you couldn't really tell, we looked identical. As we grew up we were inseparable, and if you tried to separate us we would throw tantrums until we were brought back together. Like many twins we had developed our own language that no one else seemed to understand. When school started, the teachers and administration thought it would be best to separate us. It was horrible, but no matter how much of a tantrum we threw they would not let us see each other during school hours. They even made us take lunch and recess at different times. After school on the bus home we would sit next to each other, as close as we could get. Kids thought it was weird, but said it must be a twin thing. After a while the trauma of being separated passed and eventually they allowed us to have lunch and recess at the same time. Then on April 13, 1990 on a Friday afternoon, Michael went missing. We had been walking home from the bus stop, and were taking a short-cut through the woods near our house. Michael of course had run ahead of me, always wanting to be first. The woods got eerily quiet and I couldn't hear Michael laughing or thrashing through the bushes anymore. I called out his name but got no answer. I ran home as fast as I could, terror lending me speed. Michael wasn't home. Michael Wright was gone.	Mother Divorced 66 Karen Mallon was born in Cork, Ireland on January 2, 1911, where she lived until the summer of 1921. Karen was the firstborn of twins, her sister, Kaitlyn was born 15 minutes later. Both girls grew up and went to school in Cork and would summer with their grandparents near Dublin. During the summer of 1921 tragedy struck the Mallon family when Kaitlyn went missing. Their grandfather was beside herself with grief, that one of his granddaughters had disappeared while visiting him and he died of grief within the year. Her grandmother grieved but stayed the foundation of the family for years to come. At the time Karen thought she heard her say "Just like my boys." After that, the family moved to the US to live with Karen's aunt in Plymouth, MA. She finished school in Plymouth and went to college in Dartmouth, getting a Law degree. While at law school she met Daniel Wright, and after a few years of on again off again romance, they got married in the Spring of 1938. Early the following year she gave birth to twin boys, Matthew and Michael. Her father had come to visit them for the event, and when he heard that he had twin grandsons he gave Karen a supportive smile, but cried tears of grief. Her husband became a broken man, but Karen remained strong for Matthew, eventually filling for divorce. After Michael went missing she remembered what her grandmother had said and began researching the family tree and discovered the family secret, although not it's origin. Karen believes in the myths and legends of the old country, although she would never admit it to anyone, and secretly believes all the missing twins in the family over the years have been abducted by the Fae. She is a strong woman, who continues to practice law, and works as a law advisor for a number of non-profit organizations in her community. She misses her son greatly, and is always glad to hear from him.	Father Born July 14, 1905 Died March 12th, 1977 Daniel Wright led a boring life, compared to his wife and sons. Born and raised in Boston, his life was fairly routine. Had a few girlfriends in high school, dated a few women in college. Went to law school to study business law. Then he met Karen Mallon and he fell in love. He worked as a legal advisor for a group of small businesses in Plymouth until the year Michael disappeared. Daniel was devastated and broken at the loss of his son. He has spent all of his income chasing new leads, poking and prying under every rock. He hates Karen for not caring as much, and is glad they have divorced. He couldn't stand to look at Matthew, because he saw Michael there as well, and is glad that Matthew no longer comes around. He holds down odd jobs now, if he can even get one. He spends half his time living on the streets these days. Only Kathryn Hutchenson seems to know where he is at any given moment, and he is unaware of her presence. Daniel passed away on March 12th, 1977 from lung cancer, by the time Matthew found out the funeral had already happened. Matthew has not visited his father's grave.

Friends

Paul Wilson	Kathryn Hutchenson	Leah Chase
Friend / Former lover Paul Wilson is a a former college roommate and lover. Paul was the closest thing to a boyfriend that this era would allow. Paul couldn't cope with Matthew's theories about supernatural predators taking his brother, and it eventually led to them parting ways. Paul still visits Matthew from time to time, and vice versa, but they no longer have the relationship that they used to have.	Closest Friend Kathryn has been Matthew's best friend since middle school. They were inseparable, and they had most of their high school fooled into thinking they were dating each other. She is the only one who believes him about what happened that summer and has been his sole link to his old life. She passes on news from their hometown and keeps him informed about his father. She eventually became a librarian at the local college and helps Matthew find more research materials. She is a strong woman, easy to laugh, easy to forgive, but never forgets. She has a girlfriend of 12 years.	Surrogate Mom Owner/Head Chef of Dooky Chase Creole chef from New Orleans who taught Matthew how to cook "real" creole food. Matthew visited Dooky Chase shortly after moving to New Orleans and the motherly Leah could tell he was going through something, so she sat down with him while he ate and she drew his story from him (minus the paranormal stuff). His enjoyment of her food led to a great friendship that had nothing to do with the weird shit that happened in the periphery. They've kept in touch since he left New Orleans, mostly her sharing new ideas with him and him telling her about how his business has grown and his cats. She was a mother figure to him after his breakup with Paul and him fleeing the stranger.
Noelle Britt	Vincent Carlson
Friend in progress The Rootworker Noelle showed up to the group with a bevy of occult experience under her belt, in the form of African-American folk magic, of the type known as "rootworking" or "conjure." She is arguably the most practical of them all, but appreciates their myriad gifts. She is also happy to have folk who don't regard her work as devilish, as too many in her family and community tend to these days. Eventual True Friend Good Impression (Once per day) • Inflicts -3 • Improve Impression: Good to Excellent • 0/4 doors opened	Technical Engineer An employee out in the Silicon Forest for Electro Scientific Industries, Vincent considers himself a forward thinking man of science. He will happily go on and on about the kinds of wondrous advances the inevitable shrinking of computers will do for society. Freemason and eventual Sponsor for Matthew Good Impression (Once per day) • Inflicts (-X) • Improve Impression" Good to Excellent • 0/X doors opened

Shop Cats

Archimedes, Bast, and Solomon	Grizabella, Tisiphone, Alecto, and Magaera	Ezreal
The "Guardians" These three are the cats that live primarily in my shop. Archimedes follows me home every night, and the girls occasionally come home with me. I don't know when or where Solomon came from, but that seems to be the nature of my cats. He seems to be more inclined to stay in the apartment and comes to the shop a couple days a week.	Grizabella and her kittens Apparently Grizabella was pregnant and I hadn't noticed, and one day while Noelle and Eli were both in the shop she decided she was going to give birth. Now Tisiphone, Alecto, and Magaera have joined my cat family. They currently live upstairs in my apartment, with Grizabella.	Ezreal Ezreal came back from Milan with Matthew and he doesn't really act like a cat, per se. You can swear that he is actually paying attention to the conversations going on, also he never leaves Matthew's side. Familiar Stats Attributes: Intelligence 2, Wits 3, Resolve 2; Strength 1, Dexterity 5, Stamina 2; Presence 2, Manipulation 1, Composure 3 Skills: Investigation 2, Occult 1, Athletics 2, Brawl 2, Stealth 4, Survival 2, Intimidation 2, Persuasion 2, Subterfuge 2 Willpower: 5 • Essence: 10 • Initiative: 8 • Defense: 3 • Speed: 13 • Size: 2 • Health: 4 Virtue: Encouraging • Vice: Cruel A familiar regains all spent Willpower by fulfilling its Vice once per chapter, just as a mortal does for fulfilling her Virtue. Dread Powers: Gremlin, Know Soul, Wall Climb Ban: Innocuous: Embodied familiars are very good at not being noticed by others. Anyone but its bonded master suffers a -2 penalty on perception rolls to notice the familiar, unless it does something to draw attention to itself. Through the Eyes: By spending a point of Willpower, the master of an embodied familiar can shift his perceptions to the familiar. He sees what the familiar sees, hears what it hears, and so on. He is oblivious to his own surroundings while viewing through his familiar, but still possesses tactile sensation (thus he is aware of any damage or physical sensation to his own body). Ending this viewing is a reflexive action and requires no roll.

Other Hunters

Luke Beloi: He's a good neighbor, and he can get super excited about occult topics. Doesn't seem to have any direction in life though. Lately he's been a little jittery.
Khamphong "Rose" King: Vet student, SCAdian, hides in my bookstore a lot. Surprisingly Rose has been fairly steady in the face of all this mess. She's quick to attack though, but on the other hand she's just as quick to help out.
Carol Weaver: Journalist, widow, lived with Natalie, Nancy's Sister. She's coming unhinged slowly, if she doesn't slow down she's going to get herself or someone else killed. She's started asking a lot of uncomfortable questions with little time inbetween.
Harry Olson: Mechanic, vietnam vet, drinks a lot. Harry is a mess. This whole thing with Natalie and her ghost seem to have destroyed him for some reason. Now he's in charge of the shop he was working at, and he's going to be a dad. He's still a hot mess.
Vivian Blackstone: She's very...different.

Social Maneuvers

Noelle • Good Impression (Once per day) • Inflicts -3 • Improve Impression maneuver • 0/4 doors opened
Vincent • Good Impression (Once per day) • Inflicts (-X) • Improve Impression Maneuver • 0/X doors opened

Excellent or Higher

Matthew has no one in his life at a Perfect impression
Kathryn Hutchenson - Excellent - Still lives in Manchester, New Hampshire. Noted above.
Leah Chase - Excellent - Lives in New Orleans. Noted above.

Downtime

Stuff that happened between Season 1 and Season 2

Downtime Changes

Gain Status: Lucifuge (•) Spent 1xp.

Refund 6 experience (Sanctity of Merits) for Telepathy (•••) and Photokenesis (•••)

Purchase Endowments (Castigations) (•••) (3xp)

Purchase Language (Italian) (•) (1xp)

Purchase Weaponry 1 (2xp)

Merit/Skill refund/purchase (5 pt total)

Refund Occult Specialty Psychic Phenomenon (1 pt).

Purchase Occult Specialty Demonic Powers (1 pt).

Refund Interdisciplinary Specialty (Psychic Phenomenon) (•) (1 pt).

Purchase Interdisciplinary Specialty (Demonic Powers) (•) (1 pt).

Refund 1 point from Politics

Purchase 1 additional point in Weaponry

Refund Expression 1

Purchase 1 additional point in Intimidation

Experience

Practical Beats - 0
Practical Experience - 0

Character Experiences

• Current Beats: 0 • Unspent Experiences: 0 • Spent Experiences: 18(+3 PXP)

Experiences Earned

5/25: 1 beat 6/1: 4 beats 6/15: 3 beats 6/22: 3 beats 6/29: 7 beats 7/6: 7 beats 7/13: 7 beats 7/20: 4 beats 7/27: 2 beats 8/10: 6 beats 8/17: 2 beats 8/24: 7 beats 8/31: 2 beats 9/21: 2 beats 10/19: 6 beats 11/2: 1 beat 11/9: 4 beats 11/16: 4 beats 11/30: 1 beat 12/7: 4 beats 12/14: 5 beats 1/26: 3 beats 2/1: 8 beats 2/8: 2 beats 2/15: 5 beats

Purchases

Library (Occult) (•), Esoteric Armory (•), Eye for the strange (••), Interdisciplinary Specialty (Psychic Phenomenon) (•), Resources (•), Resources (••), Staff (•), Professional Training: Occult Expert (••), Empathy 3, Multilingual (•) (Latin and Greek), Professional Training: Occult Expert (•••), Dexterity (••), Integrity 8, Library (Occult) (••), Indominable (••), Status (Lucifuge) (•)