The Black Campbell

Luisa is the only daughter to Roberto DellaMarina or Rome, a real estate broker, and his second wife, Reina Pavahli, an Iranian-born vinter in the Etruscan region of Italy who escaped the Islamic Revolution (the family was Maronite Christian and her father a poet of note.) Her grandmother is alive and living in Switzerland, her cousins live in the United States.

She was born in Milan in 1980, and has two half-brothers, Paolo and Marco, both who live in Rome, and whom she is on decent terms with. Schooled at an expensive Benedictine-run girls school near the Vatican, and while intelligent and a good student, she was frequently subject to discipline for being willful and mischievous (although she suspects the nun that took the most relish in her punishment was secretly interested in her.)

She attended the University of Rome from 1997-2000 and graduated with a degree in history and religious studies. She went to graduate school for archeology at the University of Siena from 2000-2005. She specialized in sacred archeology, and in particular Catholic artifact and archeological restoration. As a result, she was hired by the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology in 2006 as a restorer, and later as a researcher. Her connection to the Institute for External Affairs began with support research for an exorcism that too place in Romania, but over the years she has increasingly worked as support for IEA priests in the field. She has a reputation for being highly competent, and a very fast researcher, but a bit of a cold fish. She lives in a very nice flat for her income, thanks to her father’s rental company, and also has a room at her mother’s place in the country. She usually has a few cases of her mother’s wines in her pantry.

She hides her personal life from view of her co-workers as her moral turpitude clause in her contract could be an issue…Luisa is a lesbian, and until recently has been particularly promiscuous. She has had a number of girlfriends that might be considered “high-profile” to certain denizens of the internet. (She’s dated a quasi-famous Czech porn star for several years.) Currently, she is trying monogamy with her roommate — a nun with the Visitation Order, Sister Agnes (nee Marianne) Jean Duchamps, a smart architectural major who took her vows a few years ago. Sister Agnes (or Marianne to Luisa) does not have to live cloistered due to her order and her work for the PCSA. While the women think their relationship is a secret, there are several of their workmates that suspect.

Luisa likes the finer things — she is a food aficionado (but does not cook) and a connoisseur of wines, art, and clothing. She likes to dress well and has a taste for Persian (never “Iranian”, “Persian”) jewelry, poetry, art, and pre-revolution culture. Due to her family’s treatment by the ayatollahs, she has a barely concealed hatred of Islam. She is passingly religious, Catholic after a fashion (like most modern Italians), but does believe in the supernatural. The people she works with have encountered it too many times. (She has noted an uptick in supernatural events over the last five years…but has yet to puzzle out the reason.)

Agility d6   Strength d6   Vitality d6   Alertness d10   Intelligence d10   Willpower d6

Life Points 12   Initiative d6+d10   Endurance d6+d10   Resistance 2d6

Assets: Allure d2, Higher Education d4, Natural Linguist d4

Complications: Dark Secret d4, Dull Sense, Nearsighted d2, Insatiable Curiosity d4, Klutzy d4, Lustful d4

Skills: Athletics d4, covert d4, Craft d4, Discipline d4, Drive d2, Influence d6, Knowledge d6 (Archeology d10, History d10, Linguistics d8), Lore d6 (Mythology d10), Perception d6 (Investigation d8, Search d8), Science d4, survival d2, Tech d6

She gets her looks from her mother, rather than her father, who was red-haired and is now balding and a bit fat. Her mother is still very good-looking. Her brothers are both reddish-brown and curly-haired and blue eyed.

Jerry’s dad is a former army officer turned investment banker; his mother is a schoolteacher. The family’s done well throughout his life and he’s a lazy, spoiled brat. He’s smart however and before computers really took off had leveraged his computer skills into a steady job doing IT and security support around the world. (He’s in his mid-30s.) He’s a geek — he plays RPGS, collects toys and comics, knows the lines to every sci-fi movie, and is a big horror fan. In his spare time, Jerry is a ghost hunter, trolling around the “haunted houses” of New York City and New Jersey.

Yes, he’s kissed a girl, and even had a girlfriend. Yes, he’s had sex…with girls.

Jerry has a toy collection worth more than his house. He hates Mac fanbois, loves Google, Ubuntu, and open source stuff. He hates the redone Star Wars movies, and thinks LOTR is the shit. He’s studied just enough martial arts, kendo, and shot guns to be dangerous to himself and others.

Jerry is 6’2″, 270ish pounds with receding red-blond hair, blue eyes behind heavy glasses, and tends to wear sports jerseys and pants, and hoodies because they’re comfortable for people his size.

Agility d6   Strength d8   Vitality d6, Alertness d8, Intelligence d8, Willpower d6

Life Points: 12   Initiative d6+d8   Endurance 2d6   Resistance 2d6

Assets: Gear head [d4], Reputation, computer security and ghost hunters d2; Tech Expert d4, Uncommon Knowledge d2 (he’s an expert in all things geek and especially horror and Lovecraftian “lore”.)

Complications: Absent Minded d2, Dull Sense, Nearsighted d4; Insatiable Curiosity d4, Overweight d2, Stingy/Mooch d4

Skills: Artistry d2, Athletics d2, Covert d4, Craft d4, Drive d2, Guns d4, Influence d4, Knowledge d4, Lore d4, Melee Weapons d2, Perception d4, Science d2, Tech d6 (Computer Systems d10, Hacking d10), Unarmed Combat d2

Leonard “Leo” Parkes

Born 16 July 1966, Leo Parks is the son of a Boston fireman, Capt. Daniel Parkes and his wife Julia. He grew up in south Boston and in 1984 attended the University of Massachusetts at Boston for criminology with a minor in psychology. He graduated in 1988. He applied for several law enforcements positions: Boston PD, Massachusetts State Police, and on a whim, the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He was preparing for the BPD academy when he was surprised by his acceptance into Quantico, the FBI training school in January 1989. He did well in the courses, and excelled particularly in criminal profiling and interrogation techniques.

He was assigned to the Boston field office for his first two years and was instrumental in breaking a south Boston car theft ring, and a bringing down a mob boss that had been abusing his FBI informant status for nearly a decade. He also met and married Morgan Philips — a smart, head-strong Irish Catholic girl who worked as an accountant for Harvard University — in 1991. He was reassigned to the Denver office for two years, working on an interstate crack cocaine ring, but it was his pegging one of the suspects in that case to a string of grisly murders throughout the Midwest that brought him to the attention of John Douglas, the famed FBI profiler.

He was reassigned to the National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime, where he quickly showed himself to be a natural in the field. From 1995-1998, he and his partner Bob Morton investigated particularly gruesome crimes that involved elements of Catholic doctrine, and in 1998, he finally caught his man — Richard Evan Greaves. While interviewing Greaves, Leo could feel something “off” about the man and when he was found hung in his cell a few days later, Greaves always felt the scene was “wrong”…Greaves was not the sort of man to kill himself.

Then his wife and six-year old son, Jason were found dead in similar circumstances to Greaves’ victims.

Leo was a suspect in their murders for a few hours. His closeness to the case had made him edgy and unstable, but he also had an airtight alibi — he was debriefing a case at FBI HQ when the murders happened. He was never right again, slowly drifting into alcoholism and obsessive behavior concerning the case of his family’s murder (still unsolved.) He was able to perform his duties, but was increasingly erratic. He was one of the first FBI agents to respond to the Pentagon on 11 September, 2001 and was awarded for aiding in the rescue of survivors.

The last four years of his career saw him sidelined into research on cold cases, several of which he solved, but in 2005, his drinking and explosive temper put him in a position where Bob Morton — now the ASAC for NCAVC had a choice — fire him or retire him early. Recently, his father died of cancer and his mother is ill and living with his sister Laurie in Quincy, MA. He has several cousins who are firefighters and cops in Boston and New York City.

For five years, Leo has worked as a private investigator and occasionally gets a consultant gig for the Bureau through the NCVAC. He lives along the Chesapeake River in a big house, the same his family was killed in, still drives his old 1969 Mustang Fastback, and fights depression and paranoia every day with drink. His personal assistant Wanda is pretty much the only person that keeps his “skinny Irish ass” in line, when she can.

The other reason he drinks — he sees ghosts, of those he couldn’t help, tried to help, and worst of all, his son. These spirits taunt him when he’s weak, prop him up when they can, and occasionally provide aid. But they are driving him to drink and the edge of insanity. He sees them because of his sensitivity, his mild ESP that is what made him such a fantastic detective — he can feel when people aren’t truthful, can get flashes of intuition about their thoughts, memories, etc.

Parkes is tall, skinny, blond and rough-looking. (Think Denis Leary.)

Agility d6   Strength d8   Vitality d8   Alertness d10   Intelligence d10   Willpower d6

Life Points 14   Initiative d6+d10   Endurance d8+d6   Resistance 2d8

Assets: Contact, Law Enforcement d4; ESP d4, Reputation d4, Spirit Guide d8, Talented Investigator (adds to Perception/Investigation and Influence/Interrogation) d4

Complications: Addiction, alcohol d8; Anger Issues d2, Infamy d4, Obsessed d8, Personal Haunting d8

Skills: Athletics d6, Covert d6, Discipline d4, Drive d6, Guns d6 (Pistols d8), Influence d6 (Interrogation d8), Knowledge d4, Melee Weapons d6, Perception d6, Science d4, Survival d2, Unarmed Combat d6

Preferred Weapon: S&W 1076 10mm (Dam: d8W [d6W w/ stand. FBI load), Ammo: 9, Range: 50′)

Father Colin James “Mac” McEveney, S.J.

Born 10 May 1971, Colin is the first of six kids to Joseph and Mary McEveney of Pittsburgh. His father is a city councilman and former city worker, his mother is a 911 supervisor. He has several uncles — a priest, policeman, fireman, fire department chief; his three brothers are a police lieutenant and detective, a fireman, and a Democratic Party staffer in Chicago. His sisters Meave and Caroline are respectively a schoolteacher in Monroeville, and administrative assistant to a Pittsburgh city councilman (not his father.

Colin was an altar boy, and early on was torn between two callings — the military and the church. He simply knew he wanted to serve his fellow man. He attended Duquesne University in Pittsburgh, a top-rated Catholic school for philosophy and graduated in 1992. He joined the seminary in 1993 after taking a year to assist his local diocese and gaining the priest’s recommendation. He travelled to Innsbruch, Austria to train at the Collegium Canisianum — a Jesuit school with a long tradition of turning out scholarly, respected and influential men of God. Father Colin is a member of the Societus Iesu, a Jesuit, sometimes called “God’s Marines.”

He was an aide to the Archbishop of New York from 1999 to 2001, when the attacks on the World Trade Center occurred. His rectory was only blocks away and he was one of the first priests to arrive on the scene. He aided in rescue and performed last rites for those found dead. Afterward, he gained permission from the archbishop to join the US Navy as a chaplain.  Lieutenant McEveney served two tours in Afghanistan, counseling marines and special forces operators in the country, and saw direct action several times. He served another tour in Iraq, then at the naval base in Bahrain. On his last tour of service in Iraq, he encountered a creature killing the locals in the Kurdish areas of Iraq. He attempted to exorcise the  monster, but failed; he only drove it off. It forever changed his path. When he finished his term of service in the navy, he was approached by Father Gabriel Amorth and Father Jeremy Davies, who brought him into the International Association of Exorcists and trained him to fight monsters…

Father Colin was brought into the Institute for External Affairs, on paper part of the Secretariat of State, but mostly used by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — formerly the Inquisition. For the IEA, Father Mac has been hunting both dark creatures and conducting investigations of trouble inside the priesthood. He has been called “the James Bond of the Vatican” by some of his detractors for his secret duties, his flashy style, and his dispensation from obedience to the local dioceses.

He is based out of the Vatican, but travels frequently on his missions. He is highly educated, intelligent, and caring, but he has a few fatal flaws — he lacks humility, is vain, and is a bit showy for a priest. His Jesuitical allegiances make him unpopular with some in the clergy.

Agility d6   Strength d6   Vitality d8   Alertness d8   Intelligence d10   Willpower d10

Life Points 18   Initiative d6+d8   Endurance d8+d10   Resistance 2d8   Lifestyle d4 [d6 with expense account]

Assets: Contacts d6, Expense Account d4, Faith d6, Higher Education d4, Ordained d4

Complications: Addiction to alcohol d4,  Duty d8, Hunted d8, Insatiable Curiosity d4, Vain d4

Skills: Athletics d6, Covert d6, Discipline d6 (Morale d8, Reisistance d8), Drive d4, Guns d4, Influence d6, Knowledge d6 (Religion d10), Lore d6, Melee Combat d4, Perception d6, Performance d4, Science d2, Unarmed Combat d4