Flotsam of the Occult Underground gathers in an odd little shop in Paris

Rue Linné near the metro stop Jussieu in Paris attracts an odd crowd. Kids and traders gather in the square near the metro entrance, swapping brightly coloured cards from numerous collectible card games. Magic the Gathering holds sway, but other new games have captured the imagination of the young. Nearby stands the game shop l’Oeuf Cube (the Cubic Egg). A steady stream of customers passes through, browsing and buying, drifting from the shop to the card traders and back.
There is more to the place than the obsessions of the young. Behind the shop in a little laneway you can find another shop. At 33ter rue des Perdus there is a small, neglected antiques shop. An old married couple, Jean-Loup and Marie Moiraec, run the place, spending their time bickering continuously and ignoring their customers’ odd looks. Nothing deflects them from their endless arguments until that special customer comes in bearing a prize. The owners seek fragments, debris and peculiar cast-offs from the past.
The Moiraecs collect remnants from previous universes. When the last seat in the Invisible Clergy is filled and the universe is destroyed and rebuilt by the Clergy’s will, fragments from the dying reality sometimes slip through, stuck to the soles of the Comte’s feet.
This metaphysical flotsam from the past rattles around the newly created universe. It doesn’t take much occult experience to recognize them as magickally significant and curiously out of sync with their surroundings. Jean-Loup has a particular affinity for this debris and has been collecting what he can find for years. The back rooms of the shop are littered with strange small objects. Jean-Loup spends his evenings endlessly analysing these fragments, building his multi-level historical edifice from the scant information they provide.
Day by day, the shop is mostly empty, with occasional unsuspecting customers wandering in only to be berated by either Jean-Loup or Marie. Some regulars come by to deal in minor occult items, which Jean-Loup tolerates only to help pay the bills. Only when someone really clued into the big picture turns up does Jean-Loup pay much attention. Then he’s pathetically interested, hanging on the visitor’s every word. Marie remains aloof during such conversations, nervously eyeing the new arrival.

Jean-Loup Moiraec, Obsessive Antiquarian

Stats

Body: 35 (Too Many Gitanes)
Speed: 45 (Twitchy)
Mind: 75 (Calculating)
Soul: 55 (Spiteful)

Skills:

Body Skills: Rough Up Customers 25%, General Athletics 15%
Speed Skills: Drive 15%, Excuse Me, I Must Be Going 30%, Sport: Boules 45%
Mind Skills: Endless Occult Trivia 65%, Notice 45%, Occult Underground Grapevine, 55%, Dig Up Fragments of Past Universes 35%
Soul Skills: Charm 35%, Lie 45%, Twist the Knife 55%

Personality: (Capricorn) Plotter and schemer. Jean-Loup keeps careful track of every last detail of the remnants that pass through his hands.

Obsession: Learning all he can about previous incarnations of the Clergy and their worlds, and piecing together some form of universal history to explain it all.

Wound Points: 35

Passions

Rage Stimulus: Jean-Loup hates petty bureaucracy. He spends a lot of time in queues in a steaming temper.

Fear: (Helplessness) Attracting the Invisible Clergy’s attention

Noble: Jean-Loup loves kids. He has none of his own and never will, but he goes out of his way to help children in the neighbourhood. He still doesn’t understand that card trading mania though.

Madness Meter

Violence – 2 hard/2 failed
Unnatural – 6 hard/2 failed
Helplessness – 2 hard/2 failed
Isolation – 3 hard/3 failed
Self – 2 hard/2 failed

Notes: Jean-Loup Moiraec runs his shop solely to keep in touch with the occult underground and the more esoteric archaeologists and historians on the circuit. He learnt about the Invisible Clergy and the cycle of universe creation and destruction from a book given to him when he was a child. The book itself was a relic from a past existence, penned by a philosopher in a world long gone. Like Jean-Loup, the philosopher studied the Clergy and he wrote all he knew down. He discovered a ritual that passes a small object through the maelstrom at the end of the universe and used it to pass his findings on. Jean-Loup does the same now, hoping to escape this universe’s collapse when the time comes.

Possessions: Jean-Loup has oodles of ritual objects, crappy bits of antique bric-a-brac, and a few really juicy fragments from previous universes. His prize possession is the philosopher’s book from the past. It’s written in a completely alien language. Jean-Loup is the only person, except perhaps for the Comte de Saint Germain, who can read it.

Connections: Numerous people in the occult underground and the antiques trade. He’s also on good terms with a lad who trades cards round the corner from his shop. The kid is a growing avatar of the Merchant, and Jean-Loup has recently noticed increased numbers of dukes and hangers-on in the neighbourhood.

Marie Moiraec, Charming Annihilatrix

Stats

Body: 55 (Deceptively Slim)
Speed: 60 (Moves Like a Predator)
Mind: 55 (Listens Attentively)
Soul: 65 (Compelling Eyes)

Skills

Body Skills: Dirty Fighting 55%, Hysterical Strength 65%, Athletics 45%
Speed Skills: Hunting Human Prey 55%, Move in a Blur (Initiative) 55%
Mind Skills: Notice 40%, Occult Underground Grapevine 25%, Paris Streetlife 40%
Soul Skills: Avatar: The Devourer 65%, Charm 55%, Irritate Partner 55%

Personality: Scorpio. Smooth and charming, with a hidden determination that defies normal definitions of mental health.

Obsession: Ascend as the Devourer

Wound Points: 65

Passions

Rage Stimulus: A fumbled kill. As the Devourer, Marie hates when a chosen victim messes up her carefully planned rituals.

Fear: (Self) Failing on her path. Marie firmly believes that the Devourer existed before, and can exist again in this incarnation of the universe. Sometimes, however, she doubts, and despairs.

Noble: Marie wants to make it into the next universe, but on her own terms. She has a grudging respect for those who can walk an avatar’s path and tow the line the Clergy demand.

Madness Meter

Violence – 8 hard/2 failed
Unnatural – 5 hard/2 failed
Helplessness – 3 hard/2 failed
Isolation – 5 hard/2 failed
Self – 2 hard/2 failed

Notes: Avatar: The Devourer is a new avatar path, without a current sitting Clergy member. As such Marie Moiraec does not get any channels from her skill. She occasionally produces minor paranormal manifestations on a matched success, and can contact demons more or less at random. Marie is careful to avoid treading too close to the Cannibal. She does not want to draw attention to herself from other avatars or, worse yet, the Clergy itself. The GM can flesh this avatar out as desired, or just decide that Marie is quite bonkers and heading nowhere with her obsession.
Marie has pieced together the concept of the Devourer from her study of previous universes, and from many hints dropped by Jean-Loup. She surrounds herself with peculiar paraphernalia, emphasising destruction and annihilation, and kills strangers in a ritual context, using ritual magic to devour the soul of the victim. In this way she believes she consumes the essence of the person and will carry them on into the next universe as a part of her. Marie is very choosy about who she devours, taking weeks to decide on a suitable victim. None of the people she kills are contactable as demons or are ever heard of from beyond the veil.

Possessions: Marie Moiraec carries a ritually sanctified knife with her at all times, and a small bottle of lighter fluid and matches to make fires. She has a thick black marker pen for obliterating words and pictures on posters and in books.

Connections: Marie is short on connections beyond Jean-Loup. She knows a couple of people in the underground through him who would help her if the risk weren’t too great. She works alone most of the time. One thing her peculiar path allows her though is to occasionally contact demons from beyond the veil. These lost souls are terrified of her and the true annihilation she represents. Most cooperate with Marie and hope to flee once free of her influence. Curiously no demon ever has to be told about Marie’s destructive nature. They seem to know instinctively.

Adventure Seeds:

Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner?

Once a year, on a seemingly random day, a curious stranger visits the shop. Jean-Loup is always on the lookout for him, as he invariably brings something valuable; a fragment from the past, teasing hints about other worlds and other histories. This year, the man arrives with something extra special. A complete book that he claims comes from a previous universe. Jean-Loup knows the value of such a thing and will pay any price. Unfortunately others know of the book and are track the man during the delicate negotiations. TNI or the Sleepers are a good potential threat.
What’s in the book? Is the nameless man for real, or pushing a fake? Decide as appropriate for your campaign.

Bell, Book and Ritual Bloodletting

Marie is beginning to realise that the path of the Devourer needs more than the ritual destruction of individuals. She figures out that she can destroy information, culture and other traces of permanence that mankind use to root themselves in the present, and by so doing, devour their reality. Unfortunately she chooses a clued-in Parisian Bibliomancer to start with, thinking to devour his collection and deprive him of his anchor to life before ritually consuming his soul. Her preparations are secretive, but the Clergy see all and move to interfere. Their manipulations are, as ever, subtle, so it comes as no surprise that the PCs are in the middle of things when Marie makes her move on the Bibliomancer. Perhaps they are making a deal, or they’ve gone to him for information. Maybe he’s more of a regular patron. Whatever the reason, they’re stuck in his home and library when the shit goes down. His sanctum’s defences aren’t very discriminating either.