“Uh oh – as if actually discussing the possibility that we're up against a vampire weren't surreal enough, here comes that crazy poet.” The group looked up to see it was so. But before anything could be said, the mysteriously smiling poet held up his sketchpad and arrested their attention. It displayed the very man, if man it was, that they sought, standing at an intersection with the names on the street signs clearly visible. “This should be helpful – in more ways that one,” said the subtly musical voice with its hard to place accent. Before their eyes the picture moved and changed, as the thing they knew only as Mr. Rice crossed the street... No one knows where the Mystery Man came from, how he got title to an abandoned church, or what he's talking about half the time. Even he doesn't know who he really is, and much of what he does know - such as the Name of his "Secret God" - he will never repeat where mortals may hear. Rumors say he came from, or has travelled in, exotic lands like Jamaica, Haiti, Egypt, and Ethiopia. The Mystery Man is almost literally a man possessed. Haunted by memories, and by darker things deep in his mind beyond the light of memory, he is driven to combat the lurking evils he sees in his world. Guided by his inscrutable divine patron, he is a stalker of shadows, vampire hunter, exorcisor of haunted houses, bane and occasional target of monsters most people dismiss as the stuff of nightmares. "Funny how often our monsters are actually terrified of US...." What powers the Mystery Man has are mostly weak or unreliable. He will almost always avoid a direct physical confrontation, instead following the promptings of intuition or of his secret God as to where, when, and how to sanctify an area and protect it from these abominations. His audience need never know that an incomprehensible but strangely moving poem recited at a coffeehouse, Egyptian heiroglyphic graffitti in an alley, and an unauthorized "art installation" in a park, are what pinned a vampire in its coffin until it could be found and destroyed. He often presents his art as gifts to people he knows will keep them somewhere in the city - indeed, he has been known to hand his work to complete strangers in the street. This makes it harder to find and destroy all the physical manifestations of his power. Even if the Mystery Man has tracked something to its lair and managed to, over the course of a month, stack a few successful Suppressions on top of it, he may well look around for help finishing the monster off. Tall, lean, bearded, and dark, the Mystery Man wears his hair in dreadlocks. He often dresses like a "hippy" or "Rasta man" or just a homeless bum, and draws a certain amount of police attention both for that and for his tendency to "hassle the straights" (his powers require him to inspire a certain amount of "fear or awe" on a regular basis to keep working. Normally he does that with things like PRE attacks from stage while reciting poetry in coffee houses, but that's not always possible....) “Building a Mystery” song by Sarah McLachlan. Mystery Man character by Lucius Alexander copyright Palindromedary Enterprises

Often a valuable source of information. And sometimes “equipment” as the Secret God may inspire the Mystery Man to craft items of power for specific limited time uses... Tracking on Magesight helps to spot where malevolent influinces emanate from. Pedantic note: I suspect the song means the Ankh. But the Egyptian religion did not in fact die until a few centuries after Jesus came. (some claim it never died, but that's another issue.) Both more tiring and more directly effective than Sanctify, this power actively suppresses the forces of evil. Fortunately it's totally Invisible and leaves the monsters baffled – if they even realize they are less powerful than before. The Physical Manifestation is usually some work of art – from graffiti on a wall to a “razor wire shrine” set up on a rooftop to a painting. If he has time he'll take extra time to get a bonus to the skill roll. Some prayers are answered..... Mystery Man is hard to read “Window of Opportunity is actually not one week out of a month; it's several days and nights scattered across the month, including always the full moon, new moon, and usually times of occult ritual significance such as solstices and equinoxes. Mystery Man isn't always aware of why a given date is significant, but he will sense when it's coming (“I'll be able to do it in another eleven days.....around noon I think....”) and know when it's here (“The hour is come....”) Building a Mystery: Sanctify is mainly meant to trigger weaknesses related to being on “holy ground” but does carry a penalty to certain skills. Has saved his life more than once by allowing him to sneak away quietly....