Day 02: Casey Chlebek (Sigil & Shadow)

Casey is a professor of mathematics. He has a fairly cushy tenured position at Morgan State University, but at this point in his career, the unassuming little man has taken up a second job as a monster hunter. 

For many years Casey worked alongside psychologist (and almost Nobel Prize winner) Paul Höst. They collaborated on studies in consumer behavior, models for predicting suicide attempts and much more. 

Neither of them had ever married, and behind their backs colleagues and students called them ‘the bromance’. They did have their disagreements though. Casey was frustrated by how poorly supported many psychological studies seemed to be, while Höst felt that Casey was too timid in his conclusions. 

It all changed one Summer evening when Höst arrived late to one of their meetings with a young man, an assistant professor named Alex Hendry. Höst seemed inebriated or euphoric, while the young man was decidedly subdued. There were things, he said, that science had not even touched on. Externalities to the human animal, and it was the duty of great minds to pronounce them positive or negative. 

As Casey watched, Höst’s face elongated, shaping itself into a rigid proboscis crowned with teeth. Höst used his new anatomy to suck Alex’s blood, much in the manner of a mosquito. In a new, gelid voice, Höst waxed lyrical about his new existence as a deathless being. How time would no longer be an obstacle to knowledge. 

“It’s one of a very few times”, Casey would say later “where I have acted without conscious thought. I bum-rushed him out the open window”. 

The Höst-thing had managed to crawl away when Casey made his way down, kitchen knife in hand. Alex Hendry was later dropped off at The Johns Hopkins Hospital by a man in an unseasonable scarf and an Orioles cap.  

The next day went by in a daze. Casey looked at his life’s work, not to mention the people he passed on the street, in a new light. There were signs, surely? Casey dimly recalled reading Dracula as a boy, and how Van Helsing claimed that the vampire had a ‘child’s mind’. The habits and instincts guiding this predator-externality could be discovered and understood!

Much was made of Paul Höst’s disappearance. Alex Hendry remembered having met him but little else. Casey had nothing to add. 

Since then, Casey has spent most of his energy understanding the secret world of predators. His eye for their patterns is growing sharp, and he has had some success as a monster hunter. 

He surprised a pale woman feeding on a child outside a WaWa in the early morning hours. When he put a gun to her, she burst into a scurrying mass of cockroaches. Another data point. 

Casey knows that Höst is still out there, scheming to either convert or kill him. 

Casting: Hunter

Drive: Victory

Hunters recover a Bone any time they successfully undermine a paranormal entity by 

means of tracking, subterfuge, outwitting or outright overcoming them. Examples 

include stalking a cryptid back to its lair, subversively preventing a vampire from feeding 

on a victim in a club, luring a spirit into a trap or successfully shadowing a suspected 

occultist to witness a ritual unnoticed.

Background: Scholar

Oddity: Pattern Seeker

By spending a Bone, you may spontaneously ask the Guide a yes or no question about 

the setting, story, or its people. They must answer honestly. The character can deduce 

this answer by merely glancing around at little details and numerological happenings 

(temperature listed on a bank sign, time on a clock, amount of a transaction or a person’s 

date of birth are all examples.)

Bones: 4

STR 40 DEX 55 LOG 65 WIL 50

Damage Bonus: 0

Health Points: 20

INIT: 2

Damage Resistance: 0

Skills

Arcana 

Combat (Personal Firearms) (Trained Level 1)

Education (Maths)(Trained, Level 1)

Investigation (Trained)

Larceny

Medicine, 

Mysticism

Social

Survival

Technical

Special Features

Perks: 

ENCYCLOPAEDIC MIND

The character may make a LOG check to try to recall any facts, clues or even coincidental 

trivia from past experiences (even in passing) that may be relevant to any quandaries 

during an adventure.

Character Details

Genius

Bit of a positivist

Final Steps

Starting Equipment: 

Investigator Pack: Contains all a journalist or scientist might need to conduct research, 

write papers, document travels, etc. This includes such things as a laptop computer, 

tablet, briefcase, organizer (with papers, pens, calendar, contact book, etc.), appropriate 

professional credentials, digital camera, etc.

Hyundai Elantra

Trusty Zippo

Pistol 2D+2

Lifestyle: Middle Class (2)