Cthulhu/Horror Characters

Bob T. Bygymn

Description: Bob is a super friendly guy, but after dark, he transforms into the living embodiment of the fears of those around him.

Clichés

Terrifying Morphing Monstrosity [4]
A Super Nice Immortal Guy You'd Like to Hang With (4)

Tools: Endless Supply of Funds

Hooks: Each night, once he is left alone, Bob will transform into some sort of hideous creature...friend, foe, lover...these words have no meaning for Bob once the transformation takes hold.

Tales: Bob has been around the planet for a very long time. For some reason, he is trapped. Each night he hones in on the fears of those around him, transforming himself into the living embodiment of those fears. He has no recollection of what happens each night, and for some reasons the transformations don't begin until he is left alone. He knows something happens to him, though, and he is afraid.

Jack Cardigan (Formerly dead psychic detective obsessed with avenging unsolved murders)

(Submitted by Guy Hoyle ghoyle1@airmail.net)

Clichés

Murdered detective returned from the dead (4)
Medium obsessed with avenging murder victims [2]
Glib Ex-cop (3)

Questing Dice: Avenging the dead [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ]

Hook: The mob keeps trying to kill him

Tale: When you’re plummeting to the bottom of a river, your hands securely tied behind your back and your feet in a bucket of concrete, you can imagine some pretty strange things. Jack Cardigan, late of the city police’s anti-racket squad, tried to imagine waking up in his own bed, next to his girlfriend Charlene. Of course, Charlene was probably the one who betrayed Cardigan to the mob, but at this moment Cardigan would have hugged an armload of mackerel. Unfortunately, Boss Zuccone’s men were meticulous cement mixers – after all, they had had a lot of practice – and Cardigan’s feet were firmly embedded in bricklayer’s mortar when the bucket hit bottom.

But Cardigan’s imagination must have been better than he thought. As his lungs began to give out, he heard the sound of--- singing? Music playing? No, a voice like the roaring thunder of blood in his ears. A voice that could have belonged to God Himself. It was calling his name.

“John Cardigan---“

“Call me Jack!” It must have been a dream; how could he talk with the foulness of the river rushing into his lungs?

God ignored his witticism. “John Cardigan, I offer you a choice. You may remain here for all eternity, your fate unknown, your resting place unhallowed, your soul unshriven…”

“I hear an ‘or’ coming up!” It must be a dream, Cardigan told himself, because there ain’t no bubbles when I talk!

“Or, you may walk once more amongst mortals, an avenger of those like yourself, whose lives were taken from them unjustly, their spirits unquiet, a plague upon the living.”

Cardigan figured he had nothing to lose, so he took God up on his offer.

Jack Cardigan doesn’t work on the anti-racket squad anymore; he’s a private gumshoe now, with a crummy office in a bad part of town. Like any other detective, he takes pictures of cheating husbands and tracks down missing property. But sometimes, he remembers what the river-bottom tastes like, and what it’s like not to breathe, and he wonders if that was really God who gave him a choice.

Then he realizes that he hasn’t breathed in hours, and his heart only beats when he wants it to, and that there’s still a contract out on his life. He takes a deep, satisfying pull on his cigarette and glances up at his next client, the dancer with legs that won’t quit. Her name is Deedee, and he didn’t hear her come in; that’s because her kind doesn’t open the door. Deedee wants him to find out who put the slug in the back of her head and ruined her hair-do.

It’s a living, as they say.

Butch Hiacinth, Circus Strongman and Exotic Florist

(Submitted by jcwmbes isjohnm@is.cityu.edu.hk)

Clichés:

Circus Strongman (4)
Engineer (2)
Tracker (2)
Ethnobotanist (2)

Butch is a budding and slightly davincian dark horse. Born in the depths of Borneo after his father's circus took a wrong turn, Butch has developed a "wild" range of skills. The archetypal strongman, large, muscular, shaven head, wide black mustache, leopard skin leotard, hairy shoulders, he has also developed a taste for the culinary delights of exotic plant gathering. Rare panaceas, cold cures, and recreational supplements are expertly collected and administered by this overbearing billiard ball crusher.

Hook: Unfortunately, Butch has a squealing terror of the sight of creepy crawlies (insects, arachnids, and small rodents).

Adventure idea:

As a goody: Hey you! That plant belongs in a conservatory!
As a baddy; Poisoner, drug baron, over-sensitive thug.

Armington Lewis, Globetrotter Psychiatrist.

(Submitted by Jokin González armingtonlewis@yahoo.es)

Clichés:

Proud of it North American Psychiatrist (4)
Life caring gunman (3)
Lucky dandy (2)
Babelfish* (1)

Description: Young doctor, brown haired and green eyed, not so tall, not so small... Always elegantly dressed (too much elegantly for an American), and always with a smile in his face.

Story: Mr. Lewis wrote his last exam of Medicine in the Boston University a few years ago. He came to Europe looking for a deeper knowledge, by the hand of great psychiatrists, as Mr. Freud and Mr. Jung. But it's hard for a young doctor to be known amongst the people, and get enough clients. In fact he has a job as teacher of Biology in a College, by which he hardly earns the enough money to live with the dignity deserved to a doctor.

Hook: In spite of being a fairly acute shooter, he never uses his revolver for killing another person. He learned that a doctor must always protect human life. Even the mean and evil doer’s life.

Adventure ideas:

Armington may be the PCs consultant in health and psychiatric affairs (including hypnosis, an emerging and valuated technique at that time).
Or he can be the family doctor of one (or more) of the PCs.
On the other hand, PCs can meet Mr. Lewis at his role of High School teacher: At any literary meeting with other intellectuals, or if the behavior of a student makes necessary a report to his father.

* Notes: Babelfish: This cliché is used when a PC needs to test his foreign language skills. If any language is supposed to be known no roll is necessary. But if character faces a new language, he may check this cliché.

If successful it represents that he is able to communicate with others, due to the resemblances of the new language with another one the character knows, or to the logical application of some basic linguistic rules. This cliché doesn’t allow to speak so fluently, nor to read (and fully understand) any text more complex than a Pub sign or soap label... (but is really useful for traveling campaigns or arcane book seekings)

Larry Lombardi, Escape Artist Extraordinaire

(Submitted by Guy Hoyle ghoyle1@airmail.net)

Clichés:

Famous Escape Artist/Daredevil (5)
Dyed-In-The-Wool Skeptic (3)
Secret Spiritualist (2)

Story: Making his fortune and his fame escaping from submerged cabinets, walking tightropes across deep canyons, and escaping from the lightless catacombs beneath the tombs of the Pharaohs, Larry Lombardi secretly wishes to contact the spirit of his beloved dog Rover. Seeking proof of the afterlife, he exposes phony table-levitating mediums, knuckle-rapping con-men, and others who would use trickery to play upon the grief of others.

Hook: Fame is an awesome burden.

Adventure ideas:

While investigating a phony fortuneteller, Larry stumbles upon a much greater crime (kidnapped heiress, anarchist plot to blow up something, white slave ring, coven of witches bent on summoning the Thing With No Nose, etc.)
During a performance, something unusual happens (someone kidnapped, dead body in the trunk Larry was supposed to escape in, ghost appears on stage, dead body falls onto the stage, someone tries to shoot Larry, etc.)

Johnathan Star

Description: Johnathan Star (a stage name if there ever was one), is a stage magician who is somewhat delusional in his belief that he can do "real" magic any time he wants. He's tried his hand at being an escape artist, although he really does a poor job of that. He is clever though (even if he has to show off his cleverness in very arrogant ways).

Clichés

Stage Magician Who Believes He Can Do Real Magic (4)
Amazingly Inept Escape Artist (3)
Arrogant Mensa Member (3)

Tools: rigged stage magician's equipment (top hat with false bottom, trick cards, etc.).

Hooks: n/a

Tales: n/a

Trisha Stanlov

Description: Trisha is an average 30-something. She makes a living, and a darn good one, taking compromising pictures of stars (she tells herself it is research for her novels). She's watched a lot of martial arts movies and fancies herself as a upcoming star for the genre. She has dreams of getting real photographic evidence of the Florida Skunk Ape.

Clichés

Photo Journalist working for the Enquirer (4)
Trashy Novel Writer (3)
Wanna Be Kung Fu Movie Star (2)
Amateur Cryptozoologist (1)

Tools: high-end digital camera, pda full of useful contacts, laptop computer, cell phone

Hooks: n/a

Tales: n/a

Janet G. Kim

Description: Tall, 27 year-old, whose seen it all. From A to Zombie. You can give her a case and she will jump right in. Specializes at hunting down Ghosts and Demons. She comes with all the equipment she needs. Ranked #7 Paranormal Investigator in England, and is married and has two kids. She works at a Café when she isn't investigating. She preforms Exorcisms on special cases.

Clichés:

Paranormal Investigator (4)
Makes her own Equipment (3)
Cafe Employee (1)
Exorcist (2)

Tools: Ghost Hunting Tools, cell phone, laptop, wallet

Hooks: N/A

Tales: N/A