Strength 2 Dexterity 2 Constitution 3 Intelligence 5 Perception 5 Willpower 8 (3 from Hierophant Quality)
Artist (2), Attractiveness +2 (2), Contacts: spirits 2 (from Hierophant Quality), Enchanter 1(1), Hard to Kill 5 (5), Hierophant (16), Occult Library 2 (2), Resistance: Mystical 4 (4), Spirit Medium (2), The Sight (3), Sorcery 2 (10)
Adversary: Forces of Darkness 5 (From Hierophant Quality), Clown 1, Emotional Problems (Fears Commitment) 1, Honorable, 1 Love (tragic) 4, Misfit 2, Recurring Nightmares 1, Obligation (Powers That Be) 3 (From Hierophant Quality)
There are things on heaven and earth undreamt of in your philosophy.
Been there, done that, got the T-shirt (and the scars).
See, about a year ago, my father died. I never knew I even had a father in any sense other than the theoretical. Mom left Dad when I was like three years old. She'd never talk about him. There was a picture, old and faded and kind of burned around one edge.
So I dealt with not having a dad, and with having a mom who was always a little flaky. We always had a horseshoe over the door, and mom was kind of weird about spilling salt, but she was totally not into any New Age stuff. She caught me and some friends playing with a Ouiji board once, and went totally ballistic.
I found out why not long ago.
I woke up in a cold sweat after a nightmare. I don't remember much of the details, but there were flames and... bad stuff. And then there was this man in my room in an old, battered coat, and leaning on a twisted wooden stick polished to a black sheen. He looked tired, and a little sad, and exactly like the guy in the picture.
He said, "I'm sorry that I was never there for you." Then he faded away.
The stick stayed. I got out of bed and picked it up, and right then I got my first parapsychic migraine. Years of occult knowledge rushed into me, kind of a crash-course in weird. My Dad had done something to store up all his knowledge and power in the stick, and to transport it to me. Mom's horseshoes made sense all of a sudden.
The weird only got weirder after that. I started seeing things. Mostly ugly things. Ghosts, monsters under the bed, that kind of thing. But some of them weren't so bad. I learned to leave a cup of milk out for the house fairy, and I never lost another sock in the dryer. There are spirits all over the place. Most of them are too busy upholding the fundamental nature of reality to bother talking to people, but a few of them are nice folks. A bunch of them knew my dad. It seems that he was some kind of hereditary gatekeeper between the living lands and the Other Side, and when he died, I got his job.
And here, I wanted to be an airplane pilot, or a firefighter.
One of the spirits told me how my father had died. She led me to the site of his final battle, and to his library. There was a lot of damage, but even so there was more stuff than I could carry out. Even if I could have, I don't think mom would have taken well to me moving the Encyclopedia Britannica set she bought out of the way so I could put in a bunch of tomes of dark and forbidden lore. So I've got it all hidden in some trunks at the back of my closet.
Since that day, I've been trying to do Dad's job. I'm not very good yet, but I've found some people to help. It turns out that I'm not the only one saddled with a hereditary destiny that shortens the life-expectancy.
Quote: "I see Dead People. All the time. They're even more annoying than living people, and not really any smarter."
You never wanted this. Well, actually, you fantasized about havin super powers all the time, but you kind of thought you'd be the only one who had them. Ghosts, goblins, ghouls (which are really nasty) and things that go bump in the night weren't part of the equation. Still, you're going to give it your best shot. You want to get good at this magical guardian thing. One of these days, the thing your Dad died to banish will come back, and you're going to kick its ass. He may have never so much as sent you a birthday card, but he was still your Dad, and no elder demon from the third pit of Hell is going to kill him without answering to you, right?
Magic Staff (Making it actually do anything would require scraping up points for the Enchanted Item Quality, so mostly it just looks cool and has sentimental value. But it does have a knob on the end), Occult paraphernalia, Bomber Jacket, skate board.
*The Magician's Obligation works a little differently than the official version. His power comes from the spirit world, and if he doesn't toe the line, the spirits will withdraw his power. If he uses it in ways they don't approve of, he can find his Sorcery cut down to level 1, for instance. They also cut off the Psychic Friends Network (Contacts Quality) until he makes it up to them. Jerks.
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