th e
Stage a . c o n t e m p o r a r y . h o r r o r . s e t t i n g for th e
w i n d o w . r o l e p l a y i n g . s y s t e m
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th e Forces Shadow Terminus th eUnseen groups
Immortal Welcome
A K N I G H T ’S P ERSPECTIVE It seems like all of my life h as been spent as an out sider looking in. A s a young woman I found myself alone, an d too often walking through t hose quiet places on th e edge of night. I have always been attracted to solitude and repelled from th e busy world th at I was born in to. Yet, as I grow older I am m ade more and more aware of the ties th at inextricably bind me with th at world. My name is Susan D onelly and I serve an ancient C atholic O rder known as the Knights of St. Jerome. We h ave existed, in on e form or anot her, since before the fall of Rom e. We have preserved knowledge th at h as been aban doned or simply forgott en, and for fourteen years I myself hav e watched a noble, stupid race grow and diminish. Sometimes the mun dane is not as innocent as it appears to be. There are countless unseen forces that thrive just beneath the bright illusion of the everyday. There are things that lurk in the shadows that h ave been always been th ere. They have followed us down through the ages, sometimes preying on us like cattle, sometim es saving us from ourselves, but always th ere, always waiting. It h as been a great privilege to have worked with our O rder’s greatest in vestigator, Walter De M esnil. An d I have also been fortunate in th at I h ave witn essed firsthan d th e dark thin gs and walked away unscathed. Th eir documentation
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has been m y life’s work. To understan d me th ough, an d perhaps to understand th e O rder, one m ust first un derstand who I was and h ow I came to be who I am. I was born in upstate N ew York in 1969. M y fath er was a practicing doctor and my mot her h ad been a teacher before she married. Two years after I was born t hou gh, she was killed in a car accident. After her death, my father buried him self in his work. My mem ories of that t ime, and of my fath er, are haph azard at best. It seemed to me th at h e rarely ate, and instead subsisted on cigarettes and a determin ed will. H is practice kept h im busy most of the time an d when he wasn’t working he read or wrot e. He did an ythin g I suppose, to keep from dwelling on my mo th er’s death. A s a result, h e had litt le time for me wh en I was growing up. I was ten wh en lun g cancer finally killed h im. It was an agonizingly slow death . H e died by inch es at th e age of fifty-two. I had n o oth er family and was given in to th e State’s care. Eventually, I ended up in a C atholic orphanage. By th e time I was thirteen my father had become a dim memory.
My time with t he C atholics was spent mostly in church or in school, and t here were many times when the distinction between the two became meaningless. In the four years that I spen t as an orph an I discovered a deep love for learnin g and a respect for God. In 1983 I was sent t o live with a m an n amed A rthur Parrish and his wife Eileen. It was while living with th e Parrish’s that I first became aquainted with Th e Knights of St. Jerome. Both of them were historians for the Order. Through Mr. and Mrs. Parrish I was eventually able to enter it as well. A rthur int roduced me to a Jesuit named W alter de Mesnil who sponsored my entry int o the O rder. Wh en I was eighteen I was granted t he rank of Savant Knight of the Cross and made my first visit to the Vatican City in Rome. Th ere I contin ued to study and train. In t he summer of 1988 I became a full temple kn ight an d began serious scholarly work for th e O rder. I was assigned th e task of writing a general overview of th e O rder’s activities and in terests for use in t he in itiation of new memb ers. A fter five years of research, an d an oth er four spen t as an act ual field researcher, I have compiled the document t hat you now h old in your hand. T his text is drawn primarily from m y original n otes, and I must em ph asize th at as a first draft it is far from comp lete. T his version is organized into five sections, each of wh ich cont ain descriptions of the primary organization s and individuals who h ave influenced th em. Th e hidden world aroun d us is defined by conflict. Th ese are wars being waged over ideology and h istory rath er th an po litical borders.
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th e Forces Shadow Terminus th eUnseen groups
Immortal Welcome
T he Terminus is an att empt to define the actions and th e goals of a select group of individuals operatin g in th e shadows. Th e principle players in t he Termin us are a society of precognat ives kn own as th e Juvat, a violent splint er group called the Q uearo Verum, a group of mysterious beings named th e Matar, and a select n umber of otherwise norm al people drawn in to t he con flict because they possess th e potent ial to chan ge the world. With the exception of the last group, each party is seeking to cont rol the future. Th e Juvat, the Q uearo Verum, and th e Mat ar are all current ly trying to affect th e shap e of the future by seizing control of so called “free willed” individuals. A ll three groups believe th at while th e line of the future is not preordained, most of the h uman populace chooses to become set in a predictable course of action s. It is this predictability which allows precognatives to “see” the future. T here is free will, but it is rarely exercised. However, th ere are certain p eople who d o ch oose free will and , as a result, act in u npredict able ways. T hese people, usually called Loci, num ber in th e ten s of th ousands across the globe and h ave the potential to shape th e flow of history. A s a result, th ere are elemen ts of each group constantly trying to locate these people to insure their particular vision of the future. O f course, just because a Loci acts outside of th e boun dary of predictability, it doesn’t n ecessarily mean t hat th ey can be used to sculpt that vision of the future. Only a small number of them can be used or manipulated to alter certain specific points in time. Th ese Prime Loci are the t ools with wh ich the Terminus is constructed.
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T H E JUVAT The Juvat are a relatively young organization when compared to th e Knights Of St. Jerome. However, they h ave been bot h fortunate and successful in th eir evolution. T hey were first established in t he late 1800s by a group of mystics who believed th at th ey could con trol th e development of the future. Th e original meaning of the n ame Juvat is unkn own, but it may be a corruption of antiquated Latin code. Th e Juvat have been a source of hot debate with in th e O rder almost since th ey were created. T hey are, in th e most accurate term s, a highly rigid and structured fellowship of precognitives. They are enormously wealthy and have agents throughout th e world.
Juvat O rgan ization According to research done by Walter de Mesnil, the first generation of Juvat were brought together and trained in France sometime between 1861 and 1863. T hese individuals became the leaders of the Juvat an d n amed th emselves th e Advocates. They were all precognitives of the highest order and had the added benefit of being, apparently, Immortal. Within the Juvat a strict hierarchy exists. Advocates occupy the h ighest positions with A tten dant Juvat just ben eath th em. A depts are highly skilled precognit ives and exp erienced field workers. Th ey usually are chosen t o recruit Juvat cells and maint ain cont act with operations abroad.
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One Attendant is chosen every fifteen years for the position of A tten dan t D irector. It is this person ’s respon sibility to coordinate the activities of other A tten dants, Adepts, and A pprentices operating within cells out in t he field. A depts make up the bulk of the Juvat. Th ey are the on es who actually take an active han d in m anipulating events in ho pes that t hey can create a specific future. T hey also contact an d train th e majority of Apprentices. Apprentices are new members of the organization. They are the lowest level of the Juvat. Adepts are constantly seeking out precogn itives for mem bership, but rarely find t hem . As a result, many A pprentices do not have t he ability to “see” the future. O ur best estimate is that only a tent h have abilities useful enough to give them a chan ce at advancing to th e rank of Adept.
Juvat C ell Doctrin e A t th e turn of the century the A dvocates of the Juvat discovered that our O rder had been observing th em and th eir activities since 188 0. A s a result th ey adopted a “cell” meth od of operation in 1905. A tten dants were instructed to con tact and initiate small groups of specialized in dividuals who believed in, an d agreed with, t he Juvat’s principle goals. Mem bers of th ese cells were to be kn own as A depts and A pprentices. No on e within th e cell would know who was above their recruiter, or who had recruited him. They, in turn , would event ually separate and organ ize new cells. T he obv ious advantage of such a system is th e incredible security th at it creates. It makes it n early impossible for infiltrators to penetrate very far into the organization. Also, if any member of a cell is suborned, h e or she is unable to betray anyone beyond th eir own cell.
Juvat G alleries G allery is a generic term th at th e Juvat use to refer to various safehouses scattered across th e globe. T hese sanctu aries range from private h omes to corporat e skyscrapers. Th e very first G allery was an actual art gallery located in St. Vivien de M edoc on t he coast of France. It was owned by a man nam ed Elias Talamant es and u sed as a gatherin g place
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for th e A dvocates at th e turn of the century. Every Gallery is owned and maintained by people who are sympathetic to th e Juvat. Th ey can be used at any time by members in need. If a member is in danger or in need of assistan ce, they are trained t o find t he n earest G allery. The Largest Gallery is in New York City and operates on the surface as a large and successful inv estmen t firm n amed Cross & Associates. This the heart of the Juvat administrative n etwork. C ross and A ssociates oversee all finan cial matt ers ranging from th e acquisition o f property to wiring money to agents in the field.
Juvat Advocates In t he late 1800s, a mysterious man named G regor Petrovitch gathered fifteen m en an d women t ogeth er in Paris, France t o found t he Juvat. T hese individuals each brought a “gifted” child with t hem with t he express purpose of one day controlling the outcome of th e Terminus. Th e fifteen children would later become t he A dvocates of th e Juvat. N ot m uch is known about th e Founders, aside from Petrovitch on ly a few nam es and some obscure records seem to exist. There is very little information available concerning them . G regor Petrovitch is perhaps the best document ed, I have uncovered some records that may have placed him in a small Russian village th at bordered th e U kraine in th e year 1742. A t th at time he appeared to be a man barely forty years in age. T he following is a list of th e various A dvocate’s psuedonymns (coincidentally, each name is taken from a poem titled: “H ymn to A dversity”). It is not kn own what significance t heir n ames may hold. Virtue
C harity
Laught er Joy Despair
Pity
Folly
Justice
N oise H orror
Prosperit y Disease
Wisdom Poverty
A dversity
Melancholy
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T H E M ATAR W hat are th ey? W here do th ey come from? Th ese are the questions th at every Knight begins with wh en studying th e Matar. Prior to about 1950, we can find no record of them . It is on ly in recen t years th at th ey have come to th e O rder’s attention. I and a few others are of the belief that th e Matar h ave an agenda roughly parallel to that of the Juvat. Like that organization, the Matar seem to be seeking control over the Terminus. We believe th at th ey are a group of supernatural entities who h ave taken over certain Prime Loci and ben t th em to th eir will. Perhaps as an unint entional side effect of th e conditionin g th at the Matar put th eir hosts through, they have the uncon trollable ability to lower the ment al balance of individuals near them . People who maint ain close contact with t he M atar for any prolonged period of time begin to beh ave irrationally and act out th eir base aggressions and desires. It is as if they lose th e ability to d istin guish between right an d wron g. Th is, of course, renders th em fairly easy to control with t elepath y. Th ose unlucky enough to become the servants of the Matar are called the Locura. It is not uncomm on to find a M atar surrounding itself with as man y hu man s as possible. To furth er facilitate th is, th ey often pose as wealth y socialites or import ant businessmen who always keep sizable retinues. N o on e is certain if the M atar are able to “see” th e future in the same way the Juvat does. However, we have noticed some of the ways in which they attempt to realize their goals. First, th e Mat ar are constant ly seeking new Prime Loci to “possess” or “corrupt”. Second, an y Prime Loci th at h as already been reached by the Juvat is hunted and killed if possible. Th ird, many M atar seek lesser Loci who h old some import ant position o f power. If possible, th ey are also corrupted. O ne example of th is possession of lesser loci is the A merican U SN A dmiral, Gregory Rush. Rush graduated from A nn apolis in 1958 with h onors. As a young Captain, h e was the U nited St ates Navy liaison between SEA L Team-1 and th e A rmy’s Special Forces in
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Vietnam for most of th e war. He was present at on e of the greatest m ysteries of th e ent ire conflict: the disappearance of two regular Army platoons near Ha Tihn . After Vietnam, Rush worked extensively around the world for th e O ffice of Naval Intelligence (O N I). H e worked as a Station H ead for that agency until 1985. On June 14th of that year he was traveling from th e U SS Puget Sound to Seattle, WA. H is helicopter ran into severe weath er and was forced down on the W ashington coast. Alth ough the aircraft’s wreckage was recovered, the remains of its crew and single passenger were n ot. Th e N avy listed Rush and t he Puget Soun d’s Helicopter crew as: Missing, Presumed D ead. Two mon th s later a retired U SN Rear Adm iral G regory Evans Rush accepted th e Pentagon post as Chief of O perations for the O N I. We believe that th is man is th e same A dmiral Rush who disappeared in Washington. Family members and co-workers described Rush as a gaunt m an in h is early sixties, with wispy white hair. Our agents in Washington D C claim that t he new h ead of th e O N I is a man in h is middle thirties with salt and pepper black hair. The physical discrepancies and the unusual circumstances surrounding the two men lead us to believe that he was a victim of the Matar. His current position within the intelligence comm unity gives him th e power and opport unit y to forward the M atar’s goals.
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T H E Q U E A R O V ERUM In 1965, an internal power struggle took place within t he Juvat. Several respected m embers sought t o take a mo re proactive position against the Matar. To this end, they formed a secret cabal that they called the Quearo Verum. Operating outside the scope of their normal activities, these members of the Juvat began h untin g and killing kn own Matar. Between 1965 an d 1967 we estimate that they were responsible for the death s of about forty-eight Mat ar and nearly one hundred Locura. Eventually, however, the cabal was un covered and all of th e Q uearo Verum were expelled from th e Juvat. In 1982, a disenfranchised Juvat A tten dant named Elisabeth Malatesta left the organization and began contacting all of th e former Q uearo Verum. With th e aid of th e cabal’s old leaders a n ew Q uearo Verum was created.
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Today, they exist as a sort of un derground n etwork. T he goals are th e same as before, but t heir m eth ods have becom e much m ore violent and un checked. The group attracts the most volitile elements from the Juvat. O stensibly, Malatesta “runs” the group, but ou tside a small circle of former Juvat all she can really do is point th e Quearo Verum in certain directions. Her agents are scattered across the globe and rarely come into contact with each oth er. A s a result, th e Q uearo Verum’s operations somet imes seem ch aotic. St ill, Malatesta’s campaign of guerrilla war with t he M atar h as thus far proven t o be very successful. T he disorganized n ature of th e group is also its protection . N o one can strike at all of th e Q uearo Verum.
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th e Forces Shadow Terminus th th e eUnseen groups
Immortal Welcome
Imm ortals walk amon g us. Th ey cloak th emselves well, but have revealed their nature to us in dreams, legends, and through t heir own guarded writings. Th e A maranth ites are th e darkness at the edge of night. Respon sibile for th e vampire myths of Europe and A sia, they have descended th e great road of history in ou r shadow. Today, th ey still lurk in sh adows, and from t hose shadows they reach out to grapple with a history that they are inextricably bound to. Th e A maranth ites represent a competitor th at man is unaware of ,and perh aps unprepared for. It is fortunat e th at mo st of th em are reclusive and p oorly organized. Those who have stood out have pulled the strings of history, nudging us this way and that. T hey have had a h and in everythin g from t he fall of angels to th e defeat of Rome. It is these creatures more than anythin g else that h as consumed th e bulk of our O rder’s inquiry. Yet despite t he fact th at we have in vestigated th em since our inception, we still know precious little. Th e A maranth ites could be the greatest windfall that man has ever known. O r they could herald the coming apocalypse. T hey are a variable t hat could prove disastrous or fortuitous. And behind every theory, every investigation of them that we undertake lurks th e question: what should we do ?
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N ature of th e Am arant hites N o one is certain wh ere the A maranth ites came from, or if th ey were once as hum an as we. Yet th ey are on e of the oldest races that have shadowed hum anity for untold centuries. Mysterious and reclusive, they have nonetheless left th eir mark upon th e world. These beings may have given rise to the vampire myths of A sia and Europe. Th ey are seemin gly immo rtal and possess a wide range of supern atural abilities. We h ave studied th em since th e fall of th e H oly Roman Empire, but they have existed for much lon ger than th at. Study of these A maranth ites has always been on e of our most important and h azardous endeavors. As a result, extrem e caution is always taken wh en dealing with th em. U nfortunately, this has meant that th eir research has been a long and in volved process. It was no t un til th e 1920s that we obtain ed a fairly clear un derstanding of th em. O n January 22nd, 1921, a man n amed William Kanigher approached our Order with information concerning the A maranth ites. H e spent several days with Kn ight s who specialized in studying the immortal. The resulting notes and depositions that were taken event ually became the basis for the document entitled: The Bloodless. It is one of two text s that we use to prepare mem bers for any project involving the A maranth ites. Th e following is an excerpt from Kanigher’s conversations with our Knigh ts.
Bew are the et ernal m y friend. It’s sim ple really, in all its w isdom; three w ords. a w ord of truth. Beware.. . I learned a lot of things from Eiran, but t hat’s the one I remember m ost. “Trust is a luxury, ” he used to say, “don’t be so quick to barter yours out. Eternity is dangerous. It’s unequaled in its potential for evil, and in its potential for pow er.”
in the walls. O f the ones left, m ost are openly against us, and n early all are insane. Im mortality does that to m ost of the you see. A fter a thousand years of living the sam e life, the days becom e slow torture. Eiran used to say that, “On e season piles up on the next; face after face, w ine after wine, lover after lover. It is difficult to continu e. Some years. .. ” But you k now w hat gets me? M ost of them who haven’t been killed are obscenely rich and powerful. T hey disguise themselves as hum an n obles and profit on us. T hey go to great lengths of excess to amu se themselves. O nly, they find that each expensive new en tertainm ent has got to be even m ore twisted, un ique, or dangerous than the last. Bu t I’ll see the end of it. A ll of it. Som e people call them vam pires, or the B loodless, or Pyreli, or Sith. W hatever you call them, don’t m ake too many assumptions. For every rule that you think is binding my friend, there’s a dozen exceptions. Sure, some don’t like crosses, but you k now, a lot of them a pretty religious. A nd those who have accepted the A rt of Dark and Shadow m ay have some problems w ith sunlight, but m ost don’t. T he only thing that you can assum e about them is that you know very little about them. T hey hide themselves carefully. A fter all, they’re not stupid. A nd after a few centuries I guess it’s hard not to be good at keeping a low profile. It’s nearly impossible to tell the differen ce bet w een one of them and one of us. T hey appear as hum an as you or I, and their intellect is unm atched. Plus, ev ery one of them each other on a personal level. T hey share inform ation every few decades about the w hereabouts of us hunters. It mak es my job that mu ch more difficult. T hey are also able to sense when others of their race are nearby, which mak es it very difficult to hunt them if you happen to be one.
Luck ily for people like you and I, etern ity is self dest ructive. It’s just too bad that when they go, they’ll probably take us with them.
A nd that ’s w here I com e in. M y O rdinat e, Eiran, w as on e of them, but he w as one of the twelve charged with killing them all. H e un derstood that his best chance of getting at them w as through us. A nd so he and the other O rdinates began training people like you and me to hunt the A m arant hites an d destroy them . H e u nderstood the threat that his brethren posed to the w orld. H e is the one you have to thank for the knowledge that I bring.
A m aranthites are a race of imm ortals y ou see. T hey are guilded puppeteers, living just below the surface like spiders
H e also com m itted suicide a m onth after com pleting my training.
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Th e Am aranthites appear totally human upon observation. T hey rarely use real th eir “real” names and th ey usually reinvent th emselves every few decades. In addition to th e A rts th at th ey use, they also have th e ability to slowly chan ge th eir appearance if th ey choose, th eir physically forms shift at about th e same growth rate as a human ch ild. An y A maranth ite can identify any other of course, but to a hum an it can be n early impossible to see th e conn ection between one of them t oday and what th ey may have looked like a hundred years ago. They can alter skin tone, height, weight, birth marks, voice intonation—everything really. T hough n o one within th e Order has seen it first han d, there are reliable stories that some Amaranthites will choose to mimic an actual hum an being. On ce the resemblance is complete they invariably kill the h uman and t ake their place. H owever, very few of th em will tolerate anyth ing less than a perfect form. They are unusually vain in this respect. While some Amarant hites stay in t ouch with th e ever changing world around th em, many have become attached to certain periods in history and continue to wear long outdated styles and fashions. A ll Amarant hites seem to h ave the ability to h eal wounds at a remarkable rate. A scratch might h eal over in a matter of seconds, a small cut in perhap s only a few min utes. For a relatively serious injury (like a broken bon e or a bullet wound), t hey might n eed a few days. H owever, not matter how grave the injury, an A maranth ite Lord would never seek the aid of any mo rtal agency.
Caledonian Council T he journals of C ross Knight Ross, in addition t o th e testimon y of Mr. Kanigher, are th e primary documen ts used to familiarize mem bers with t he “Bloodless”. Th ese two text s have set the tone of for all of our dealings with this immortal race. Samuel Ross was the foremost Amaranthite scholar within our Order. By the time he was thirty, he had wandered all over Europe an d A sia following legends and folklore to find th e truth behin d the mystery of th e Am aranth ites. His ent ire life was spent in t he p ursuit of their origins. H owever, for the purposes of th is docum ent , only a fraction o f his researches and notes have been included. For a more detailed accoun t, refer to th e comput er tape files stored in
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the Roman archives. W hat follows is mainly an account of the en d of th e old A maranth ite order. .. . and so the W ards of A rmere in Scotland actually go back to Roman times; to the century just before the A m arant hites called their f inal assem bly. T he w all encircling Loch A rmere was constructed by order of the Rom an C aledonian G overnor, at t he requ est of a pow erfu l and influential A maranthite named T hracio. Physically, the grounds surrounding A rmere are nothing short of spectacular. Secluded in the highlands beyond H adrian’s W all, the Loch is a stron g focal point for poten tial m agicks. O ddly enou gh, there is no archeological evidence of Scots, Picts, or even Rom ans between A rmere’s wall and the Loch itself. A n area m easuring rou ghly tw o hu ndred kilom eters extends from H adrian’s w all northward and encompasses the Loch and its standing wall. I believe that the area imm ediately surrounding Loch A rmere was controlled and maintained by the A maranthites for the purpose of large gatherings. Several m onolithic ston e W ards still stand w ithin the deteriorating remains of A rmere’s walls. T hese W ards act like focusing lenses for magicks. T hose who can contact other minds have a particularly difficult time w ithin the enclosure created by the W ards. T heir ability is absorbed and amplified back at them by the stones. If a mage or “gifted” individual who is near the W ards does not attem pt to use their abilities, then the stones merely create a feeling of un easiness. H owever, anyone actively using their “gifts” or engaging in the use of magicks will have those powers directed back at them a hundred fold. A ccording to m y research, T hracio spen t n early sevent y years of stu dy and m editation placing all of the W ards. T his was done to protect those w ho would one day gather in that place. A t t he time, the A m aranthites w ere essen tially peaceful and well organized, with a central council called the A llegiant heum , w hich held an assem bly every few decades. T hey m aintained a loose policy of secrecy where hum ans were concerned. T hey also put draconian restrictions on those A rts which could only be used for destruction.
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. . . but ev erything that they had accomplished was overshadowed by a current of instability that was sweeping through some of the older ranks. T hese Fathers and M others had lived in the times before Greece and Egypt, but even they could not remember their exact origins. A long series of execut ions w ere perf orm ed by the A llegiant heum in the first cent ury before the birth of C hrist. A t the time, only the very oldest were killed. S uch drastic measures were deemed necessary because of the incredible powers that they possessed. A madn ess that gripped the most powerful was a threat that the A llegiant heum w as n ot prepared t o face. But cut ting ou t t he root s didn’t k ill the spread of the vin e. A ll of t hose of fspring t hat had spread to A frica an d A sia were slowly becoming aware of the disease that they carried within themselves. T hracio was one of t he first to realize the possible implications of his immortality. Five centuries later, in the year 46 6, the inevitable occurred. A large group of the oldest A maranthites led by Lord V alkan declared t heir succession from the A llegiant heum . A fu ll assem bly w as called f or by the remaining A llegiantheum. T he area in C aledonia kn own as A rmere was chosen as the meeting place. Sam uel C heever Ross Savant K night of the C ross 1754
Valkan O ne of the best documented A maranth ite Lords was an ancient known as Valkan. He was the leader of a sect of immortals called the Recreantheum who rebelled against th eir leaders. At on e time, we had in our possession several books handwritten by Valkan himself. A ccording to docum ent s stored in our O rder’s archives, Lord Valkan was one of the oldest an d most uncon ventional Amaranthite Lords. It was believed until early in this century that h e had been killed sometime in 900 A D by C atholic Knight s in what is now north ern A ustria. Four of his books were obtained by the church soon after, and were eventually passed on to the Knights of St. Jerome in 1183. A ccording to some sources, Valkan wrot e as man y as twen ty books, though the C hurch has only ever uncovered solid evidence of five. The four books once held by our Order
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were considered so heretical by the Vatican that they were sealed and guarded from an y who would seek to use th em. In the early fifteenth century, however, when two of the books were destroyed it was decided that copies sho uld be mad e. U nfortun ately, whatever secrets Valkan recorded were destined to go undiscovered as the effort of tran scribing them drove more than one m onk in to madn ess. Today, in addition to p artial copies, on ly one of Valkan’s original books is in our possession. Most of what we have been able to piece together on the true history of the Amaranthites is based on research done by the Duke H einrich Von G uellum before his death. U nfortun ately, his main references were letters written between th e Recreanth eum, and obviously they learned little from the final Armere assembly, having not attended them selves. W hat Von G uellum did discover was th at T hracio an d h is fellows revealed evidence of some imp ending peril, someth ing that th e A maranth ites were intimately linked to. W hatever th e evidence was, we must assume th at it was quite compelling, as the Allegiantheum agreed unanimously to destroy all evidence that their race ever existed. A ccording to Valkan’s estimate, some twen ty-seven t hou sand A maranth ites used the A rmere Wards to take th eir own lives on t hat night, for reasons th at he could n ot fathom. Before the end of the council, it was decided that twelve of the most powerful of the A llegianth eum would stay behind and become O rdinates, or hun ters. It would be th eir task to find each of the renegade Recreantheum and execute them . Once their duty was completed, or if they felt eternity pull to strong, they would take their own lives.
Loch A rmere Estate Very few visit Loch A rmere an ymore. Its remote location in the Scott ish H ighlands prevents most from venturing into th e area. But during th e mid 180 0s, a large estate was built on the Loch’s shores. Th e man or and surrounding grounds were constructed at the behest of the Von Guellum family. Th ey were min or, expatriate nobles from A ustria who had lost all of their native land h oldings. Th e Loch A rmere estate remained in their possession until 1915.
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N estled within a shallow valley, and shielded from view by th e moun tainous nature of the surrounding land, a low stone wall that on ce encircled th e Loch is usually the first feature th at one notices upon arrival. Between th e deteriorating wall and th e Loch itself are a series of stone m egalith s that we call the Wards of Armere. Each intact stone measures almost n ine feet tall and th ree wide. On th ese Wards are faint impressions that the harsh weather has all but eroded entirely. Th ey are all that remain of the run es that were carved into them by Amarant hites sometime during the Roman occupation of G reat Britain. In 191 5, Duke H einrich Von G uellum’s wife invited a group of seemin gly un related individuals from aroun d th e world to th e Arm ere estate. Th e events that tran spired there are unkn own, but shortly thereafter, the m anor h ouse and part of the servant ’s quarters were burnt to th eir foun dation s. Both D uke Von G uellum, and t he people who were staying at t he ho use, disappeared short ly after t he fire. Because of th e anti-G erman sentiments th at W.W.I caused in G reat Britain, Duch ess Von G uellum soon returned to A ustria. To this day, no record of her whereabouts has been uncovered. In 1942, t he A rmere estate was purchased by an A merican named Patrick Russo. H e had the m anor house and the servant’s quarters re-built accordin g to th e original specifications. However, work was halted by th e outbreak of WW II. A fter th e war, construction was never completed, though th e estate rem ained t he prop erty of th e Russo family. Today, the Loch, and t he land surrounding it looks much t he same as it did a cen tury ago. Th e on ly visible clue to its age is the manor h ouse and the com plimentary buildings. W hile th e servant’s quarters were fully restored, t he ho use proper has fallen into a serious state of disrepair. Because of the adam ant denial of th e Russo family, we have never been allowed to inspect th e estate in depth. H owever, in 1943, a carpent er who had been in th e employ of the Russo family, told on e of our investigators th at wh ile the original house had been burn t to cinders, both t he foundation and a maze-like series of cham bers below it were in
T H E ST A G E
perfect condition. T he man had left the work site because of “unusual goings on” that plagued the Loch while he was th ere. Two weeks later he t urn ed up dead on a pier in Glasgow. We believe th at Du ke Von G uellum was in po ssession of one or more A maran th ite icons or artifacts, possibly even some of Valkan’s books. It may be th at h e stored th em ben eath the house in the catacombs that exist there. If this is so, then th e Russo family would no w be possession of whatever it ems that Von G uellum h ad amassed. Th is may explain th eir reluctance in allowing us to inspect the estate.
Th e Ordinates A fter the final decree of the C aledonian council, the t welve O rdinates left behin d began th eir task of hunt ing the renegade Am aranthites of the R ecreanth eum. Even to th ose of us within t he O rder, the O rdinates seem more like myth ical figures th an real ind ividuals. No Kn ight h as ever discovered ph ysical evidence of them . At most, all we have ever found are records, person al diaries of people who came into contact with t hem, or obscure folktales. However, we must believe that they do exist. We know from Bill Kanigher’s testimon y that at least one O rdinat e nam ed Eiran recruited human s as A maranth ite hun ters. We also believe that h e, or anoth er Ordinate, may have had a han d in th e development of th e Am erican O ld Families. Un fortunat ely we also kn ow th at Eiran killed himself sometime prior to 1921. T his leads us to believe that wh atever the A llegianth eum sought to en d or avoid may still await th em. Th ey do not con front the Recreant heum directly, instead choosing to hazard pawns in an old and in tricate game. Th ey use hum ans to draw the renegades out int o th e open, where they are vulnerable. Kanigher on ly knew the n ames of three of the O rdinates, and we have never been able to discover the names of the others. Th e ones that we do kn ow are: Eiran, Q uintus, and G insal.
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th e Forces Shadow Terminus th eUnseen groups
Immortal Welcome
O LD FAMILIES Th e th ree bloodlines known as th e O ld Families of A merica have been a source of interest for our Order since the 19th century. Alth ough th ey have their origins in th e A merican Revolution, it was not unt il the 1800s that th ey began t o draw our attent ion. Independen t occult investigators and even ghost hun ting societies are not an unusual phenomen a. both have existed in varied forms for centuries. It was th e appearance o f not on ly one, but th ree ent ire families of occult dabblers and investigators which brought th e O ld Families to th e atten tion of our A merican Knights. Upon realizing that the Pagets, Bishops, and Harpers of New England were a unique occurrence in almost th e whole of documented history an in vestigation was initiated. At the urging of Con sular Abbot Dewitt, an open ended observation and file was begun. In ad dition , a separate inv estigation was undert aken con cernin g each family’s origins. C aptain W illiam Bishop, Sergeant Patrick H arper, and C olonel Richard Paget all served in th e Con tinent al Army under Washington. H owever, the only other ment ion of th em th at can be found during th is time period is an incidental account wh ich would seem to place each of th em at th e Battle of Trent on. It is not kn own wheth er or not t he three had met prior to the war, though it seems unlikely. Following th e A merican bid for independence, th e th ree soldiers settled down in parts of New England an d each began a family.
T H E ST A G E
N ext to n oth ing is really known about th ese men, and it is their descendants who mainly interest us. Members of each family hav e served in almost every major war fought by th e U S. It is during th ese periods th at th ey have had some of their more interesting endeavors. As a result of their “obsession” with t he supern atural, th e O ld Families have built up quite a reputation within certain circles. T hey are self styled occult experts and o perators who h ave man aged to involve th emselves in some of the m ore bizarre supernatural events in American history. Despite th eir long tradition of occult in volvement, th ere are those who would argue that the Old Families rely more on luck than knowledge. As proof, they point to th e Paget bloodline. O nly four descendan ts of th is line remain today, due main ly to the disastrous actions of the family in t he 1920s. Shortly after W.W.I, a young man n amed Timoth y Coch ran entered seminary school. H e had served in th e trench es of the G reat War, and during that t ime spent in France, he had been a witn ess to an gel manifestation s. H e, and a fellow soldier n amed Victor Paget qu ickly became obsessed with understanding the “angels” that they had seen. However, soon after their m utual sight ings, Timoth y was woun ded quite badly and was sent hom e. Upon returning and ent ering the priesthood we cont acted and invited him t o join our ranks.
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H oping that t heir prior relationship would be enough to make contact with at least one of the Old Families, Presiding Abbot DeW itt sent Timothy to contact Victor Paget in 1925. It seemed like an ideal situat ion, using th eir friendship, th e O rder could reveal itself to t he O ld Families in a slow and con trolled man ner. The fact th at Victor had essentially isolated himself from the rest of his family also meant t hat we would not h ave to worry about unwanted suspicion or inquiry. It was an opportunity that had to be taken. Timoth y was led to believe th at h is assignmen t was furth er study of angels, and for reasons of secrecy, was told not to tell Victor Paget an ything about th e O rder until a later date. T his would prove to be a terrible mistake. W hile working with Paget, the two h ad made inroads into and an gel worshipping cult in A frica. Timoth y was certain th at t he cult was in po ssession o f several books of angel “lore”. We believe th at th is was the impetus th at prompt ed him t o attempt an infiltration of th e cult. With out warning, Timothy suddenly disappeared. Alarmed, Presiding Abbot DeW itt quietly sent out an urgent message to th e Cath olic infrastructure in Kansas City: any information about Timothy Coch ran would be wired to the O rder with all possible h aste. A short t ime later Timot hy’s body was discovered in a local broth el. His body was covered with t atto os and ritual scars. T he Kn ight that was sent to claim his body was convinced th at A frican ritual magic had been used to kill him.
T H E H O ST T he H ost refers to all th ose n on-corporeal beings that occupy what is otherwise known as the “spirit” world. W ith th e exception of an astral projection , spectral beings are creatures of varying intelligence who do not maintain a material form in their natural state. O ur O rder has investigated h auntin gs and ot her spiritual phenomena off and on since we first became aware of them. H owever, since t he main focus of our energies is directed at
T H E ST A G E
beings and organizations that can be documen ted in a linear and in ter-related way, study of the H ost has been h aph azard at best. Still, there are aspects of the Host which lend themselves to investigation. Those spirits who interact with one an oth er and pattern them selves after the angels of the th ree Ch ristian religions are th e subject of a small but focused group of Knight s. Th e Seraphim, or A ngelic C hoir, have been of particular interest t o us as th ey do maintain that they are actually angels. T he b ulk of research do ne in th is field was th e result of two different Knight s in separate eras. Thomas Magnusson was born in 1848, in Girgenti Sicily. A complete p ersonal file for Magnusson is kept in t he O rder’s archives at our library in Rom e, and is available for inspection. H is lifelong preoccupation with th e Seraphim began in 1868, just as he was ent ering th e sixth year of his studies. A lthough h e only lived to be forty-eight, h e is the Knight most respon sible for th eir study. In 1950, A bbot M arie de Quincey built on M agnusson’s work and began to study th e possible aims of the Seraph im. H er assessment an d th eories are th e basis for th e current movement within th e Order th at is interested in producing a more detailed analysis of the Host in general, and the Seraphim in particular. T he following is a short excerpt from th e rath er sizable research that Magnusson did prior to h is death in 1896. Th e complete an alysis was given to our C onsular A bbots and was event ually catalogued in our Fren ch Library. “.. . the Seraphim have no true shape or form. T hey are part of the great H ost of S pirits that clin g to t he w aking world and have no doubt given rise to countless legends and superstitions. T hey are ghosts and specters, but are not the shades of men . T hey have never been “alive”, and certainly have never experienced a physicality that we take for gran ted every day. Yet, the Seraphim confound me. W hereas most of the H ost are little more than addled brained phantoms upon which we have foisted our fears, the Seraphim are well organized and quite capable.
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th e Forces Shadow Terminus th eUnseen groups
Immortal Welcome
We are not the on ly ones interested in th e unkn own. For centuries there have been societies that dedicated th emselves to t he pursuit of th e supernatural and th e paranormal. However, it is only until recently that governments began sponsoring such groups. The most notable were the Victoria’s Gh ost Hu nt ers of the 1800 ’s in En gland, but th ere were and are oth ers. In A merica at the end of th e C ivil War, a group of Secret Service agents briefly investigated a malignan t substance called the D arkness. A lth ough th is group was short lived, it left beh ind a legacy that would, in time, be taken up on ce again. In t he early 1980s a man n amed Eliot M organ brought togeth er a group of federal agent s and began inv estigatin g th e Darkness once m ore. Th is group, the Shadesmen, was fated to be short lived an d fraught with in trigue and tragedy. T he t wo groups mentioned above represent only one aspect of the governmen t sponsored investigators of th e unkn own: th e accidental one. N either the 1800 or th e 1980 groups were purposely designed by th eir govern men ts to seek out the paranormal. They either stumbled across some aspect of the supernatural or were covertly formed with their governm ent ’s finan ces, but n ot its overt kn owledge. DPL agencies on th e oth er han d, are groups formed at the express request of a government. Since the early 1950s there have been DPL agencies. A byproduct of the Cold War and closely resembling other espionage groups of the period, DPLs seek to “neu tralize” th reats of a supernatural nature. Th e DSI in A merica is a perfect example. Nearly autonom ous with in th e governm ent it serves, it engages in covert warfare with an ythin g that it deems of “unknown origin.”
T H E ST A G E
T H E D ARKNESS T he m ysterious substance kn own as th e Darkn ess was first recorded in t he lat e 1800s by a group of Secret Service agent s who h ad been ch arged with th e investigation of several strange events in New Orleans. Only fragmentary information con cerning these men has been uncovered, th ough, due to a disturbin g conspiracy of silence surroundin g them and their activities. By all accounts, the Darkness takes form as a viscous black liquid. Each seethin g ten dril is an ext ension of th e whole. To sever an offsho ot or isolate a single drop is to confine an aspect of the whole. No matter how minute, the Darkness survives and propagates. A single malignan t purpose guides every ounce of it. In 1865, th e same year that t he A merican Civil War concluded, the U SSS (U nited States Secret Service) was founded as a branch of the Treasury Departmen t th at today
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ho lds the distinction of being the oldest federal law enforcement agency of the U nited St ates governmen t. Founded by H ugh McC ulloch, with th e consent of President Lincoln, the Secret Service was originally charged with combat ing coun terfeiting, but then began protecting th e President in 1901. T he first Secret Service C hief was a man nam ed William P. Wood. H e started with only ten agent s, mostly private investigators, and b egan trackin g down coun terfeiters. By 1870, th ere were twenty-four agent s working for the Secret Service, eight of which were ordered by Wood t o investigate a shipping company headquartered in N ew Orleans. We do not know exactly why Wood sent these agents to Louisiana, ho wever, what t hey discovered went far beyond simple “boodling” (counterfeiting). T he ch ief investigator th at Woo d sent to N ew Orleans was a man n amed Leonard C abbot. We presume th at it was because C abbot was born an d raised in Louisiana t hat Wood placed h im in charge. Cabbot, though, was a strange man by all accounts. According to information t hat we have gathered about him, he was born in 1840 an d although h e was a southerner, records show that he enlisted in a volunteer regiment in N ew York and fought for th e U nion during th e war. Afterwards, he worked at Pink erton ’s Detective A gency and th en in 1866 was recruited for the U SSS. A ccording to letters written between Wood an d McC ulloch, C abbot was competent , but n ot particularly liked by other members of Secret Service. We know t hat Wood himself did not care for C abbot, and h is distaste for the m an m ay have had m ore to do with C abbot’s New O rleans assignm ent than his background or inv estigative prowess. According to research conducted by Walter de Mesnil in 1973, sometime in th e middle of the 1860s, an A ustralian cargo ship registered under the name Brittanicus started on a jo ur n ey t h ro ugh th e In di an O ce an , fr om it s h om e po rt in Perth to N ew Orleans. Sometime after its departure, the Brittan icus picked up a load o f slaves bound for A merica. H owever, the ship never reached port as it foundered on th e seas just beyond t he C han deleur Islands in th e G ulf of Mexico and was never seen again. That was, until the small island of Jut in the Breton chain was purchased after the war by a group of freemasons as a retreat. T hey subsequently discovered the remains of the ship which had been driven
T H E ST A G E
into th e rocks that line the perimeter of th e island. Wh at they discovered with in t he rotting h ulk would have repercussions that extended well into th e 1980s. W hat th ey found was an in ky black substance t hat, in Cabbot’s words, “.. . devours all life. It is a m align and vile substance that shows all signs of being alive and possessing of an intelligence, though by what means I do not know. Every time I think that I understand its nature, the damned stuff confounds me again. O ne thing is certain though, it is evil.” C abbot an d his fellow agent s uncovered a salvaging operation t aking place on Jut. Th e freemasons who owned t he island were h auling heavy wooden casks, such as one might have found wine stored in, out of the Brittanicus’ hold, and were transporting them to a storehouse in N ew Orleans. Shortly after arriving at the city, Cabbot discovered the Darkness th at th ey contained. W hile we have discovered much about th e O rigins of th e darkness in A merica, we have yet to determine what the real goal of the Brittan icus was, or why t he freemason s were so intent on salvaging the derelict ship. W hat we do kn ow is that somehow, C abbot convinced Wood that th e Darkness was something that had to be contained and, if possible, destroyed at all costs. McC ulloch was subsequent ly given t he authority by the Executive Branch to seize th e conten ts of th e freemason’s storeh ouse. A s man y barrels of Darkn ess as could be found were th en t ransported by secure railroad cars to an A rmy fort in Vicksburg. To th e best of our kn owledge, Cabbot never learned th e whereabouts of th e Brittan icus. A fter some examinations were made by the U S A rmy, Presiden t G rant created a ancillary group of Secret Service agents with Leon ard C abbot as its head, whose sole purpose was to track down an y Darkness in the U nited States. Over the course of the next few years Cabbot had his family hom e in Barnett, Louisiana converted into a temporary ho lding facility for any Darkness th at h e or his men recov ered. For undisclosed reasons, in 1 892, President C leveland dismantled C abbot’s group by executive order and h ad all official records of its existen ce destroyed. A ll of th e Darkn ess kept at th e Vicksburg fort was transported t o a secure facility
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in somewhere in C olorado. H owever, we do not believe th at th is included t he D arkness stored at C abbot’s house.
DP L A GENCIES
Despite all of this, Cabbot and his former agents continued to in vestigate t he Darkness in private. C abbot h imself disappeared in the summer of 1900 somewhere in Nebraska.
DPL (D angerous Phen omena Location) agencies represent a growing trend th roughout the world. Since th e Victorian age there have been occasional “ghost hunting” societies that have h ad either th e blessing or th e funding of an open minded governmen t. Th e VGH in Britain was one of the most ren owned of th ese groups but it cert ainly wasn’t the first. However, not until the early 1950s have governments themselves created special organizations designed specifically with the supernatural in min d.
T H E S HADESMEN O ne o f the after affects of Leon ard C abbot’s Secret Service group was th e creation of th e Shadesmen. In 1985 an N SA agent n amed Elliot Mo rgan organized a group of investigators for the sole purpose of cont inuin g Cabbot ’s work. We postulate that h e must have uncovered some document s that escaped Clevelan d’s purging, but he was killed in 1 992 before we were able to interview h im. By th en, h is covert activities within h is own government had branded h im a traitor. T he first action he t ook was to bring togeth er a group of well train ed profession als under h is person al auspices to gath er information about Cabbot. N one of the agents knew each oth er personally. Th ey were each carefully screened an d selected from separate agencies, and th ey were not p aid directly by the government. Using his authority as a high level NSA official he began appropriating the excess funding th at h is department received and started to fund his own private operation. T he first m ission was to investigate certain even ts in Delilah, N ebraska. Our order attempted to obtain t he recorded mission reports in 1993, but were deterred when we discovered that t he N SA had con fiscated all of Morgan’s personal docu men ts. We were able to uncover th at the mission found t he remains of Leonard Cabbot and th e lamp that was given t o h im in 1891 by the A rchdiocese of Philadelphia. Sometime during th e mission, th e team also encountered a man posing as an FBI agent by th e nam e of Jackson C age. A background check on h im through th e Nation al Security Data N etwork traced him back to the U .S. Department of Special Investigations. We were able to interview h im as part of our 1992 in vestigation and he told our int erviewers th at th e Shadesmen were still active, though th ey had severed all ties with th e N SA .
T H E ST A G E
T hese agencies differ from t heir predecessors in t hat th ey are not m erely concerned with t he investigation and docum entation of th e paranormal, but rather are charged with th e elimination of supernatural threats. In some cases, they have even attempted to utilize such phen omena in an attempt to shift th e all to tenu ous balance of world power. th e government sanctioned “ghost h unt ers” of today resemble not hing so much as cadres of highly trained soldiers, a far cry from th eir society club beginn ings. Every major industrialized nation on earth had created some sort of DPL agency by th e end of the 19 60s. Th is “arms race” can be seen as a byproduct o f the C old War, a time when paranoia ran unusually deep. Just as th e mem bers of these agencies began to resemble their military brethren, so too their tactics began to mirror th ose of th e elite special forces. O peration s are cond ucted un der th e heaviest cloak of secrecy, and all too often are staged on foreign soil. One of the most active of these organizations is the Department of Special Investigations (DSI) in th e U nited States. The United States’ DSI was created by President Eisenhower in 1954 an d was on e of the first of the m odern “gho st hunters”. It was one element of a two part program code nam ed: AVATAR. Project: Blue Book was th e oth er half of th e operation . Th e A ir Force’s half was also twofold. T here was the “official” inv estigation of U FOs designed for public consumption, and t hen th ere was the covert investigative portion. However, It was decided by President Johnson and the N ational Security Council in 1968 to close down th e military aspect of AVATA R. In 1969 P roject: Blue Book was terminated.
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T he stated goal of the DS I is th e suppression of paranorm al activity that would in any way th reaten th eir national security. This blanket directive has enabled them to, on more than one occasion, strike out at private citizens and engage in operat ions across th e globe. With the en d of the C old War and the Balkanization of the Soviet Union, the directives and mission goals of many DPL agencies hav e chan ged drastically. Man y countries have dismant led their department s, and still others have repurposed th eirs. A s a result of th is political uph eaval, those agencies still operative in t heir original form h ave had t o become even more secretive . Many agencies have been attemptin g to gain m ore autonom y by disguising th eir nature from t heir own government s.
T H E D SI T he U nited St ates is sectioned into th ree different regional areas of operation: East Coast, West Coast, and Central. Each region is controlled by a Field O ffice, there is one in Washington D C, D enver, CO , and San Francisco, Calif. Excluding the DC office, Field Offices are usually staffed by about th irty personn el and one Deputy Director. H owever, to cover t he vast areas in each region, several Out Region O ffices are established t hroughout the continen tal U S. T hese O ut Region O ffices almost always consist of no m ore th an on e or two D SI agent s called RO s (Regional O fficers). T he R O s are th e investigative arm of the DS I’s Special O perations branch. T hey are charged with th e task of rumor hunting and the initial investigation of official cases. Their main purpose is to gather information an d brief their superiors, and if the case warrants it, call in th e Th reat Response Teams (TRT). Because of their unique and often uneventful duties, ROs usually operate under other Federal or Stat e capacities such as Forest Rangers and G ame Wardens. T heir employment as low profile governmen t agents allow ROs to operate in relative anonymity and still receive their pay from th e governmen t. U nlike TRT or clean up crews, RO s are th e agents most likely to com e into contact with the public, therefore, they rarely engage in “wet” or “black” operations.
T H E ST A G E
Because of th eir isolation and wide ranging respon sibilities, RO s are generally th e most high ly skilled operatives in t he field. Th ey are trained in several different disciplines and on ly become R O s after serving with on e of the T RTs or clean up crews. Th ey are the men and women who occupy the strata between the “wet” field operatives and the upper echelon staff. In fact, almost every Special O peration s Executive Officer has been a RO. A s of 1965, there were three twelve man T hreat Response Teams under the Special Operations branch of the D SI. On e was posted at each Field O ffice. However, in 1966 Team -3 was lost in th e Salem Seven in cident . It is the duty of th e Th reat Response Teams to contain or suppress threats of a paranorm al natu re. Th e TRTs are usually called in wh en a R O has determined th at a th reat exists an d m ust be dealt with as quickly as possible. SpecO ps recruits most of its members from t he t op five percent of military academy graduates. Th ese soldiers are th en cross trained in several different Special Forces programs. After exten sive cross training th e recruits are taken to a special SpecOps proving ground somewhere in the Colorado Rockies. Here the TRT operatives are familiarized with existing an d past supern atural th reats. T he T RTs are, however, first and foremost fast reaction forces. Th eir primary function is to con tain or suppress any th reat of unn atural origin. H owever, secrecy is absolutely paramount in t heir operations. Th is restriction generally prevents them from mounting large scale operations with the use of helicopters and the like. TRTs use unmarked vans and minivans as transportation whenever possible. T he clean up crews are groups of agent s who m ove in after th e T RTs and “sanit ize” areas. Th eir duties may include th e disposal of bodies, evidence, or m edia black-out.
The Stage is copyright ©1998 by Phillip Challis Illustrations copyright ©1998 by Phillip Challis and Scott Lininger The Stage is available online at http://www.mimgames.com/Stage The Window RPG is available online at http://www.mimgames.com/Window
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