Father Titus, Resurrection Man

Appearance

Adrian Titus Curry is the sort of man who looks like he should be portraying a merciless Roman centurion, or a tough as nail exorcist in a turn of the century primitive religious community. These things are not far off from true. Adrian is an older man, appearing to be in mid to late fifties, with graying hair, clean shaven, but with a countenance as unforgiving as wind blasted mountains, and a very palatable aura of grim authority. He is of average height, and is in good physical condition for a man half his age.

He is a curt and short spoken man, not given to small talk or idle chit chat, he seldom smiles and almost never laughs. As an agent of the Vatican he is fluent in latin, as most official communications to the Holy See are done in the high form of the language. He is also passable in aramaic written and spoken, as this is the common tongue of the Albus Dei organization, the White Hands.

The White Hands

Albus Dei is the intelligence and supernatural suppression branch of the Roman Catholic Church, and the members of the Albus Dei are the spies, assassins, saboteurs and paranormal specialists. In the standard supernatural world/World of Darkness there is no way that vampires, werewolves and all the other weirdos are going to be able to stay perfectly hidden from humanity and it's institutions. As one of the oldest continually operating entities in the world, the Church is well aware of the supernatural and the Albus Dei are their MiB. Where the weirdos keep to themselves and don't make too much of a fuss, the Hands of God will largely leave them be. Those that make a menace of themselves will find themselves facing local hunting cells, vigilante groups, and ultimately the wrath of the Vatican.

The organization has ties around the world, and it's members are able to cross borders with ease, and move things with them that otherwise are not allowed. In the United States, the Albus Dei has an uneasy relationship with the Federal Security Bureau, the domestic supernatural and paranormal enforcement agency, and a much stronger relationship with the network of hunter cells across the continent.This closer relationship has caused tense moments, as the Albus Dei is a human only organization and there are a fair number of North American hunter cells that have integrated supernatural beings into their ranks, and have hybrid offspring, as well as diabolists, sorcerers, and the like.

History

Born to a lineage of military men, monster slayers, and clergy, Adrian Curry was promised from birth an interesting life. He grew up under the harsh and unforgiving tutelage of his father, a soldier turned demon hunter. He was groomed to be a superior hunter to his father and was deeply indoctrinated in the teachings of the Church. He survived in these conditions and become a very hard man. He served in the British special forces, and was both a commando and a chaplain within the unit. After his service, he retired from the military and entered the service of the church. After 10 years working in the Condotterie, the Vatican security service he was promoted into a junior field agent, where he investigated supernatural and paranormal events, and brought understanding where needed, aid where needed, and the unforgiving edge of the blade where needed.

After several years serving with a senior Exorcist, he was promoted to full rank and entered into the Albus Dei. He studied the hidden texts and mastered the ancient mysteries of the Church to emerge as a Resurrection Man. He has the ability to call the recently dead back to life, can heal with the laying on of hands, and can call upon the power of his faith to smite his enemies, turn back those who reject the light of faith, and to alternately forgive and condemn those who oppose him.

Classic Cleric Meets the 21st Century

In many ways, most of Father Titus' abilities are the basic abilities of the cleric from Dungeons and Dragons and should largely be familiar, but they are fully adapted to a dark modern setting.

Resurrection: Father Titus can call the dead back to life, but the spirit must be willing to return to life, he must be willing to do it, and there are always costs and complications to the resurrection process. The person is brought back to life, but long term death is a very traumatic experience and people who have been brought back from the dead are often incomplete. Amnesia, phobias, and other mental disorders are normal.

Healing, Curing, and the Removal of Curses: Father Titus can restore injuries of the flesh and the spirit, ranging from curing mundane illnesses with ease, more severe maladies with great effort, and supernatural afflictions with heroic effort. He seldom does this as he sees few people deserving of this treatment, and in his belief in the afterlife considers turning back death to be a cowardly or even ungodly thing to do.

Holy Smite: Standard ability, the holy smite causes an attack to maximum possible damage (not counting critical hits, damage multipliers, etc). While good with a sword, this power is much much more effective with things like a .357 magnum, a 12 gauge shotgun, or military equipment. As a former special forces soldier, Father Titus can and will if required holy smite a foe with an RPG, satchel charge, or vehicle mounted weapon.

Turn Undead/Outsider: By revealing an icon of faith and forcing his will through it, Father Titus can turn the undead like vampires, vampire thralls, and those under their influence as well as things best termed as outsiders. This power is not effective against natural and nature type beings such as the typical werewolf. It is very effective against things that are fae, star touched or otherwise not of this world.

Forgive/Condemn: Father Titus has the priestly abilities to allow others to confess and atone for their actions, granting them legal and mystical protections, as well as condemning or cursing them for their actions. These are relatively weak abilities compared to the others, as they largely only function on mundane humans, or on willing and accepting supernatural or paranormal beings.

Equipment and Companions

Templar Crusader sword: Titus carries an old sword that was supposedly carried in the Crusades and is allegedly the sword of Richard II. While the historical documentation is lacking, the effectiveness of the sword as a weapon (Sword +3/+5 vs undead) is undeniable, and it also functions as a holy symbol. He has documents allowing him to carry this weapon anywhere he feels like. He seldom takes it anywhere other than when hunting vampires.

The Hidden Gospels: a collection of apocryphal texts, the Hidden Gospels include the secret gospel of Judas, the Gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, the real man not the one put up by the church, and the gospel of Simon the Magus. There are several other books compiled in this tome and it functions as a holy symbol and functionally a book of holy magic. By studying the scripture, Father Titus is able to gain divine inspiration to create holy rituals, wards, and what would otherwise be termed spells. Contrary to the D&D vibe, these are more classical interpretations of magic and take time to prepare and cast and are nothing flashy like summoning angels out of the air, throwing holy fireballs or anything over the top like that. There's no need for that sort of thing in a setting with machine guns and tanks.

Shamshel

Shamshel is an angel. Not the white wings and glowing halo sort of angel, but the cosmic entity that strips away sanity and causes madness if you see its true alien form. Rather than causes horror and madness everywhere it goes, Shamshel has adopted a human shell, a dark headed woman of average height and stature. Who this woman was before the angel turned her into a puppet is something that the entity has never discussed and likely never will. Shamshel is an on again off again companion to Father Titus and it is not known if he summoned her through powerful divine magic, or likewise bound her to a human host, or if the angel has it's own reasons for skin-riding a human and spending time in the company of a Vatican Resurrection Man

Shamshel has odd mannerisms, as it is a much larger entity pretending to be human. Lacking a true gender, it doesn't quite understand being human, or a woman. It has a much more alien mindset, more akin to a squid than a flying human. She/it does enjoy eating crabs and seafood, has no aversion to blood and gore, and is otherwise functionally an angel of battle. Shamshel is very good at hand to hand combat, and can switch through almost all known martial arts with ease. It is also versed in the use of melee weapons and favors swords and spears above all other weapons. While is/she can use firearms and other modern weapons, it finds them distasteful and impersonal. The exception to this is large vehicles, like tanks and gunships which the angel approves of for their ability to cause damage and destruction.

Shamshel's supernatural abilities

While an angel it is best to talk about it/her in Biblical religious terms but think of it in terms of the Lovecraft mythos. The only difference here between angels and demons is political persuasion and one side had a much better PR department. Shamshel is highly resistant to damage, rapidly regenerates from almost all forms of damage, though things like fire, acid, and magic caused damage take longer to recover from. Physical abilities are likewise increased, specifically strength.

In times of high stress, such as facing substantial outsider or demonic threat, Shamshel can extrude energy whips/tentacles from it's/her arms. These can alternate between grabbing, crushing, throwing, or cutting through things as required. This manifestation of true power burns out it's/her body and after releasing this power it/she has to go into a resting state to recover the host body. Shamshel can also control and manipulate darkness, spewing it out of it's/her mouth like ink.

The Resurrection Man

As one of the few legitimate Resurrection Men in the world, Father Titus is able to keep himself easily busy. He travels with several other lesser members of the Albus Dei, often lore keepers, trainee adepts, and other minions. When on a mission rather than fact finding or investigating, he will keep the company of Shamshel and it is speculated (correctly) that there is some sort of physical relationship between the two. This is something that smart observers will keep to themselves as one doesn't criticise those who keep company with the manifestations of the Divine.

Titus spends most of his active time hunting vampires by preference, and then usually only older more powerful vampires. He is unlikely to waste time hunting through the rack of a city taking out street level undead. His ideal prey wears suits and have wealth, power and influence and are generally at least a century old. He hunts the princes and lords of the undead, not their childer and spawn.