The Backdrop
The year is 2010 and the world humanity lives in is a lie. Things really do go bump in the night, and they might just be here to eat your soul. Out of every hundred people, ninety-nine are blissfully ignorant of the ghouls, monsters, and nightmares that walk among them. The remaining one sees everything. The Key of Solomon Agency polices the supernatural world, protecting mankind from the nightmarish creatures that populate the world. Most of the monsters end up with a bullet in their skull or locked in a cage. A few are given a badge and a gun, and aimed at their own kind.The Setting
The Key of Solomon Agency, or KOSA, is responsible for enforcing the laws of the supernatural world. They track down and apprehend/execute those guilty of crimes against inhumanity, whether the offender is mortal or monster. The only people who really know the full story of the Agency are the Directors. The agents themselves don't know who KOSA answers to, if anyone, and there are several theories.
The agents are primarily humans. 99% of humanity cannot see the supernatural side of the world. Their eyes simply don't see the right wavelengths of light. The remaining 1% tends to be mentally unbalanced, growing up seeing things no one else can. The more stable ones are hired by KOSA. Roughly a third of the agents are non-human. Some work for KOSA as part of their parole, some for the pay, and others because it beats the alternatives. A very small portion of the agents are quasihuman. Some have non-human ancestry, but most of the quasihumans are Acolytes, survivors of demonic possession.
Magic exists, but not in the way people expect. It is harnessed entirely through runes, and there are no known creatures capable of using magic without them. Runes can be powerful in their own right, but can do strange things when an additional sources of power is added, which can be anything from specific locations to the most common, blood. KOSA gear is almost entirely enhanced by runes. Rune jars to catch spirits, ghosts, etc, which are then turned in to the Agency. Guns and bullets inscribed with runes can knock holes in monsters capable of shrugging off anti-tank weapons.
Run Rune Magic By Me Again Doc!
Rune Magic is a systematic way of creating magic via the usage of hieroglyphics, japanese kanji or the norse alphabet amongst a number of other systems. The common person would not know of rune magic, nor how it works, consider it like chemistry - or cooking -, you need the right ingredients, the blood of demons, the essence of a ghost, grounded unicorn horn, so forth. These ingredients when treated properly can be used to create inks (or other substances).
Once these 'inks' are made and used to write a specific almost algebraic formula of magic onto vellum (animal skin) to create 'scrolls'. Scrolls by all purposes are ways of containing prepared magic to be used at a later point, however scrolls need to be stored properly lest natural energy in the atmosphere/air can degrade the magic.
Rune Magic can also be used to enhance a plethora of other objects, bullets are a common one for KOSA, however body armour, specific weapons and holding cells - amidst other objects - will be enchanted with such methods to further the purposes of KOSA.
Player Species:-Humans. Some humans are born with the ability to see supernatural things (around 1-2%). Most are at least a little mentally unbalanced, and most of the ones not too badly damaged are hired by KOSA as agents. This has led to the misconception that KOSA only hires psychos. It's just that most of the people with the required skills happen to be malcontents, social misanthropes, and, indeed, psychos.
-Acolytes: Normal humans who have survived demonic possession. Demons alter their hosts' bodies to suit their needs. Nearly every acolyte has ocular runes, a ring of barely visible runes around the iris that allows them to see the supernatural world. Other powers are usually subtle. If a demon needs a host able to rip down buildings and make people's heads explode, he isn't going to be gentle enough on the host for him/her to survive the possession.
-Hellhound: The offspring of a possessed human or, less often, some other quasihuman, such as a wendigo. Hellhounds are rare, mostly because they must be conceived while one of their parents is possessed, a state with rarely lasts long. Most quasihumans are not interested in getting some action, making the demon-spawned hellhounds more common. Hellhounds tend to take after whichever quasihuman sired them. Those born of possessed humans tend to have a subtly sinister look to them, while wendigo-spawn usually look savage. Hellhounds can always see the supernatural world, being part of it, and are abnormally strong and tough, though not inhumanly so. A hellhound might be able to break a man's arm easily, but bending steel bars would still be beyond him.
-Goblins: There are a variety of goblins, the most common being hobgoblins. Typically clever and sarcastic, goblins rarely cause trouble for KOSA because they either stay out of human affairs or get jobs at the Agency. Most are around 3-4 feet tall, not physically strong, but they have a knack for creative use of any equipment they can get their hands on. They tend to hoard anything that might be useful, and many of the goblin agents can be relied on to have exactly what is needed for any given situation.
-Dryads: Nature spirits, dryads look like humans with some sort of plant growing from them. Able to talk to plants, they can gather information that no one else has access to, and make excellent surveillance specialists. Typically calm and annoyingly cheerful, they are bound to their trees (which they often give names to) and cannot be more than 20 feet away from them. Their trees grow very slowly, and many dryads carry theirs around in flower pots until they get too big.
-Liches: A lich is a creature, usually human, who has cheated death through the clever use of runes, old-world alchemy, and biological chemistry. They invariably look dead, usually gray-skinned and gaunt, though they will not actually decay. In order to become a lich, an individual has to be familiar enough with modern science and the creation of runes to accomplish the task, which in turn means that liches are, without exception, intelligent and resourceful.
-Wendigos: Cannibals who have eaten enough bodies to have achieved a supernatural status. The only way to kill them is to kill them once for every body they have eaten. They have become increasingly rare over the last century, and are almost extinct. They are strong enough to literally tear a man limb from limb, and are fast enough to catch almost anything on foot. However, the same power that makes them stronger, faster, and so very hard to kill makes them extremely paranoid about technology, and they have serious issues with using anything that has moving parts. Most don't care if other people use them, but believe that something bad will happen if they do so themselves, so they are typically stuck riding shotgun and using low-tech weapons.
-Golems: Golems vary in their appearance, but are creatures constructed rather than born, animated by runes. They usually take the form of animated statues, but the influence of modern art has given their creators new options. Typically, a golem is obscenely strong, depending on what it is made of, and is gifted with superb reflexes. Because it reacts as quickly as its runes can, it can think and act more rapidly than anything made of flesh. This does not equate into speed, however, and those made from stone or metal tend to be rather ponderous. Most cannot speak, and they tend to develop various neurosises, most commonly OCD or unusual phobias.
Other species are available, but must be cleared by me first. PM any unusual ideas to me and I will provide feedback.Standard gear:
-Badge. Good for scaring the crap out of the lesser supernatural misfits.
-Rune-inscribes handgun plus ammunition. Ammo is free, but lost or damaged handguns will be deducted from an agent's per diem.
-Rune jars, for capturing ghosts and spirits. These must be turned in after capture, and empty jars will be issued as replacements.
-Rock salt. Ghosts hate it, and lesser undead can be repelled by it. Most agents stick with bullets, but the salt is handy as a backup.
-Poppet. The small primitive doll is supposedly useful for dealing with poltergeists, but none of the agents have figured out how its supposed to work. Some of the goblins make puppets out of them.
-Religious text of agent's preferance. Most of the agents are agnostic, so these usually get left in the armory, but they're useful when trying to handle demons.
-Scroll cases, on the off chance that an agent might be capable of using rune magic, preprepared rune scrolls need to be stored in a special made case so that the runes do not degrade in the open air, potentially weakening the prepared spells.
Character Sheet
Name: Be reasonable. A dryad named Sue is okay, but a human named Talak'zor'norath is just silly.
KOSA Position: Be it a field commander, researcher, intelligence officer or a field grunt (+others, be inventive!)
Gender: For some races, 'None' is an option.
Age: Note that most quasihumans live about as long as normal humans.
Species: Again, run new ones past me first.
Appearance:
History: A closing statement of how a character joined KOSA would be appreciated. Military organisations, when doing psychological screening of applicants will also forward the information to KOSA to grade potential recruits, remember, KOSA usually approaches you, you don't approach KOSA - this applies to humans and quasihuman races unaware of their supernatural origin. Ones that are aware, Wendigo's, goblins, hellhounds and so forth are more than likely to know of KOSA and may apply.
Personality:
Specialty: (Optional) What you bring to the team. Most agents specialize in shooting things until they stop moving, but some have other strengths.
Gear List: Review the above mentioned list, add any additional items that may be pertinent to your character.
Extra: Anything you wanted to include that didn't fall into any other category.
