- Darnell Phillips
- Li-Choi Ho
- George MacDonald
- Bob Dibble
- Dolores Aristophales
- Cincinnatti Jones
- Bud Hertz
- "The Doc"
Darnell grew up in the US capital of Washington DC. During his youth, the code of the streets was hammered into his blood. Despite being rather successful at school, Darnell chose to avoid the straight and narrow and embarked on a life of crime to satiate his need for high quality clothes. His involvement in crime has few boundaries, gambling, racketeering, robbery and car theft are all areas where he has expertise. It must be said that although he has a deep interest in looking smart at all times, this does not mean that he is a pimp. Questions on that subject tend to discover just what can be concealed by sharp and expensive tailoring.
Always a favourite among the party, he has played vital roles in a number of adventures. Was it not Darnell's Extra Strength twelve inch condoms that were filled with sea water to defeat a mythos being that really ought not to have been so self assured? His 'protection' is also put to more standard use as, being the only man in the party who doesn't look like the back end of a bus or smell like a badger, he is a natural to offer shoulders to cry on...
Update July 2002
After taking a sabbatical from the adventuring business, Darnell came back with a vengence in particular demonstrating his excellent driving skills. Who knows what could have happened when Officer Dibble opened the box with some madman (e.g. George) behind the wheel rather than Darnell.
Darnell recently came into a considerable amount of money when he and Jackie uncovered a stash of stolen diamonds and decided that, seeing how they were already stolen, they should keep them. He also had enough street savvy to be able to pay off George.
Update November 2007
Darnell, now under temporary control of another player, and the rest of the party are doing their funky thing up in the hills of the Rockies. It hasn't taken him long to get back into the shooting thing.
Li Cho always had a fascination for martial arts movies even before he became involved with the Mythos, however, the events surrounding the chase of a Hunting Horror were to drastically change his life for ever.
Never quite sure of his place within society, seeing that abomination flying off into the sky out of the colourful atmosphere of a New Orleans parade seemed to galvanise what his role should be. Here are some of the highlights.
- He has a large collection of all those martial arts movies that he doesn't 'appear' in. (Actually, this wasn't a major shift in personality since he always was the sort of sad person who would spend nights in the television room of cheap hotels watching old Bruce Lee re-runs on cable)
- He is the greatest martial arts expert ever. (Again this is not too much of a change since he does have a certain amount of skill in that area, despite his rather obvious weight problem.
- He thinks that David Carradine looked really good with a bald head.
- He is Jackie Chan, the film star, and has made countless martial arts movies in which he has undertaken all of the stunts and never got hurt no matter how many opponents he has taken on.
This last point is the key one. You see, living in his own little fantasy kung-fu movie has its downside. It is just not good enough to take pot shots at the creatures and servants of the Mythos, they must be taken down mano a mano. He will willingly throw aside his automatic pistol and attack using his fists and feet of fire.
Oh, such fun.
After putting his foot through the face of an innocent pawn of the Mythos in 'self defense', he had his US visa revoked as soon as he left the country. Therefore he is now considered an illegal alien whenever on American soil. I had totally forgotten this until the chap playing George 'The Bum' MacDonald told me.
Teamwork...
Update July 2002
Jackie's been continuing in the same frame in that he generally is the most successful fighting force that the party has. It actually is a bonus when he 'loses it' and decides that fists and feet are the best mode of attack. He's finished off a wide variety of Mythos creatures most notably sacrificing his own body when Officer Dibble was about to go bye bye.
He isn't quite the man that he used to be, however after an encounter with a constitution and power sucking creature. He managed to get back his power but he's still not looking so well. He's also been experimenting with his magical ability and has acquired other useful spells to try out although he still hasn't tested out Consume Likeness...
Update November 2007
Along with the others he is investigating strange goings on among the snow covered mountains in the Rockies. He's already taken the opportunity to go toe to toe with a one of the more violent examples of the local wildlife, namely a were-wolf. As ever, he was happy to be taking a beating as the party stood by and shot their totally inneffective guns into the melee.
George The Bum, as he is affectionately known to his friends (everyone else calls him 'Get out of my backyard, you wino!') is the newest recruit to the group, Ed having lost his previous two characters. He turned up one day with his usual opening line, 'Have you got any spare change?' and unlike all the previous times, he was not beaten up. I guess that the party saw in George a useful man to have around when the bullets are flying (i.e. someone who doesn't run as fast.)
Never afraid to try out something different, George is usually the one responsible for some of the more inventive plans as detailed here He's also quick to experiment with some of the more illegal substances available. Indeed, it was one of these that gave George his most defining moment. After purchasing a small quantity of marijuana in a bar in Belize, to stave off any other sellers, he decided to get his money's worth and settled down in his hotel that night to smoke it. The resulting high brought it all back to him.
Before this time, George had lived a blissfully ignorant lifestyle. The wide open road, the sun in his hair and the wind at his back were three of the things that he didn't experience as he shuffled from skid row to skid row in the pouring rain, sleeping in dumpsters, eating out of trash cans and bumming cigarettes. After that night, he realised that his past life was all some sick joke of an alien force that he could not understand. Just who was he? Just how did he get such a good tan, and why didn't women find his musky aroma attractive? These were all questions that his mind struggled to understand.
Unfortunately, George will have to wait a little longer since his last act was being carried out of a large hole in the ground gibbering something about a small statue and asking for his mummy.
Update July 2002
George is just hanging on in there by a thread. The sanity that he gains through defeating the Mythos very rarely covers the huge amounts that he loses in the process. Unfortunately George has the box, and has had a vision care of it, at present and the only thing that keeps him from opening it again is the immediate positioning of Darnell's .44 magnum at George's head.
Still it's not been a total disaster. During the past months, he has been adding liberally to his women's underwear collection. And I also notice from his character sheet that his "drink meths" skill has improved to 25%.
When George found out about the diamond raid, his silence was bought with 3 packets of cigarettes and a plastic 2 litre bottle of cider. Top bloke!
Update November 2007
George loses out in love again. Quite why the attractive professional was drawn to george on that fateful evening before death is a mystery. The night air, the sophisticated surroundings, George's musky aroma (the product of years of limited access to washing facilities) are three things that played no part. Most likely she was pissed and he was the first bloke who offered her a drink. Unfortunately George could not "consumate" the relationship as she has been horribly ripped to shreds by a were-wolf before he had managed to asked Darnelle for one of his extra strong condoms.
A lucky escape for her, I hear you all cry!
Officer Bob Dibble joined the merry band to provide a link between the party and local forces of law and order, namely NYPD. His previous experience in the area of special investigations made him perfect for the job.
Despite his schooling in the traditional skills of police work, he has immediately slotted into the party tradition of thinking up odd plans.
For his sins, he should be eternally grateful to Jackie since without his intervention by the side of the road, Bob would have been taking a rather painful journey to some other world in the eager clutches of a Dimension Shambler.
But aside from the plans, monsters and appalling tracking rolls, he has found time to undertakes some good honest coppering. Most notably getting Darnell's 'piece' impounded because it was only slightly automatic.
The adventure ended on a sour note for Bob Dibble as it was discovered that he has a considerable amount of crack cocaine stored in his apartment and he was placed on suspension pending a full investigation. All is not lost, however, since his own investigations have turned up very useful information.
Update November 2007
No-one knows where Officer Bob is. Although given his class A drug case didn't go well, he's probably doing porridge trying hard not to reveal he's a filthy copper and avoiding dropping the soap inthe showers...
Not based on any movie character, CJ's hat, whip, name based on a Great Lakes state and interest in archeaology are merely a conicidence. He joined the party looking for the chance to dig up things. What he ought to have realised once he saw the quality of his colleagues was that they are more used to burying items than uncovering them. Usually bodies, body parts, evidence pieces of statue...
Bud is a used car salesman par excellance who is skilled in the ancient and mystical art of ringing (and I'm not talking about bells here!) If the party is ever in a position where they are without transport but have the front half of a 1996 Vauxhall Corsa, the back half of a 1997 model, an angle grinder and a welding torch then he will be invaluable.
Bud's first action in the adventure really integrated him into the team psyche as he managed to fail miserably with his driving skill and kill an innocent pedestrian with The Other Mystery Machine. Such was his skill, however, that he managed slam the brakes on in the middle of the blizzard and to hit the bloke with the side of the truck thereby avoiding the horrible spectacle of his face plastered all over the windscreen. He marked the significant event with a nice sticker on the side of the MM that looks suspiciously like a wig-wam with a black cross through it.
The Doc is a mysterious individual who's origins are shrouded in secrecy. Some say he is in fact Quince Quincy with a face lift and a fake medical degree from Ulan Bator Institute of Medecine and Butcher's College. Others say he's not really a doctor and usually go by the group name of "Next of Kin". Either way the party now has a member who is "legally" able to perform procedures on poor, unfortunate individuals who get in their way.
He has been straight into the action using his considrable experience in pronouncing a number of people dead at the scene. To be fair when your insides are coating the ceiling of the hotel room, a trained chimp would be able to call that one. Still his medical bag full of methadone will come in handy for when George gets the shakes.
Every party needs a calming force, especially this one. Delores is that force. She can always be relied on in times of danger to be nowhere near the action. This is generally the most sensible option, believe me. Delores is also the party geek, showing more that a little aptitude for all things computer based.
I'm afraid that for the moment, there's not a lot to write about Delores since she just gets on and does all this really boring things that the rest of the party shuns. You know, research, investigation et. al. Still, that's the beauty of these things, she might surprise me one day.
Update July 2002
Delores has been taken out of the field as she's just too knowledgeable about the Mythos. She acts as a kind of home base contact (a bit like the Father from Thunderbirds). Unfortunately no-one has heard from her for a while since sending her the last two books.