PRIMUS: Wizards

The division of PRIMUS that investigates and pursues the mystical is officially known as the Detached Department for Research and Experimentation of Metapsychic Activity (DDREMA)-- however, everyone, Director Peter Glenn included, refers to them as the Wizards, an honorable sounding title that belies their low reputation within the agency.

An unofficial department within PRIMUS, Congress refused to approve the agency's budget as a whole when, in 1993, when the division was first proposed. Then-director Hawkins capitulated and slashed the proposed department - but he turned around and placed twenty intelligence agents and ten assault agents on detached duty in an unofficial capacity, pulling resources from bases around the country

Wizard agents report to Area Directors - there are directors in the Southeast, the Northeast, the Southwest and Pacific Northwest, as well as a Central director located in St. Louis. Area Directors report directly to PRIMUS Director Peter Glenn.

These detached agents - Wizards - both benefit and suffer as a result of their ambiguous position within the organization. PRIMUS labs aren't overly generous with their time, and thus agents are often forced to do most of their work in off-hours. Equipment and weapons, too, are "borrowed" from other departments within the agency. Most regular PRIMUS agents consider the Wizards to be themselves worthy of research by trained psychiatrists, though opinion runs the gamut of amusement to outright hatred. Wizards usually have an outsider's mentality and a fierce pride about their work.

Area Director (Agent) Owen Hendricks

Background: Owen Hendricks was a Captain in the Marine Corps when the Pentagon mandated Cyberline testing - and no one was more surprised than Hendricks to find out he'd tested positive. The Marines had been Owen's primary focus since he'd been in high school, and it took a good bit of persuasion from Agent Trevor McEvedy, the recruiting agent. What finally sold Owen on PRIMUS was the fact there was significant room for advancement, he would still be able to hone his combat skills - and his salary stood to nearly double. This was a major selling point: Hendricks had been supporting his mother and younger sister since his father had died during his second year in college.

Owen's first assignment was to Atlanta, one of the largest PRIMUS bases on the East Coast. He was repeatedly commended for his work and was first in line for an open Agent Commander slot, a position that would have commanded respect, indicated a higher level of security clearance, and would have meant a sizable increase in pay, again -- until a background investigation revealed something PRIMUS found unacceptable.

Several months previous to the investigation, Agent Hendricks had met a nurse - and fallen for her, hard. Given that Hendricks had managed to avoid any serious entanglements through college and three years in the Marines and then PRIMUS, this was an event his mother rejoiced in - though PRIMUS didn't share the sentiment. Kimiya Rahman was a 21-year-old nurse, but she had been born in Iran and was considered a security liability to PRIMUS because her mother still resided there. [That Kimiya's family fled, fearing for their lives in the wake of the Islamic Republic's takeover of the government, and that her mother had stayed only because she was the second wife of Mohammed Rahman - those things didn't figure at all into the security profile.]

Bitter about losing the position to a less qualified agent, Owen jumped at the chance to become an area director for the Wizards project, when the position was offered to him a few weeks later. Granted he knew little about the occult, but that could change - and it did. The intelligence agent-heavy Wizards were relieved to have a new assault agent in their midst. So far, Owen has taken his job very seriously and has received several commendations from Washington, something he sees as vindication.

Tactics: While the majority of his job currently is running interference between PRIMUS and his agents, or his agents and the outside world, when faced with a combat situation, Owen will come in with fists swinging. It's not that he doesn't know a better tactics - it's that he thrives on that sort of confrontation, and knows the extent of his physical prowess.

Personality: An easy going man most of the time, Owen will become irrational over three things: derogatory remarks about Latino-Americans (his mother was born in Mexico), criticism of his fiancée, Kimiya Rahman, and criticism of the Wizards, both from within PRIMUS and without.

Appearance: Agent Hendricks is 5'10, with black hair and piercing black eyes. He was a perfect candidate for Cyberline: his physique only altered slightly, and he didn't bulk much at all. When in motion, he appears fluid, cat-like - and he has an uncanny ability to always land on his feet.

Area Director (Agent) Owen Hendricks
Val Char Cost Roll Notes
20 STR 10 13- 400 kg; 4d6 [2]
21 DEX 33 13- OCV: 7/DCV: 7
14 CON 8 12-
11 BODY 2 11-
18 INT 8 13-
11 EGO 2 11-
15 PRE 5 12-
16 COM 3 12-
6 PD 2
6 ED 3
5 SPD 19 Phases: 3, 5, 8, 10, 12
7 REC 0
30 END 1
30 STUN 2
Total Characteristics Cost: 98
Movement: Running 6"/12"

Powers & Skills
Combat Training:
Combat Skill Levels: 2 Levels w/ All Combat (16)
Combat Skill Levels: 2 Levels w/ PRIMUS Weapons Range Mods (4)
Defense Maneuver (5)
Weapon Familiarity: Small Arms & Clubs (3)
Martial Arts-PRIMUS Agent Training (24)
Martial Strike +0 +2 6D6
Martial Throw +0 +1 4d6 + V/5
Killing Strike -2 +0 1d6+1 KA
Choke Hold -2 0 2d6 NND
Martial Disarm -1 +1 STR 30 Disarm
Martial Block +2 +2 Block, Abort
Agent Training:
Acrobatics 13- (5)
Breakfall 13- (5)
Bureaucratics 12- (3)
Climbing 13- (3)
Computer Programming 13- (3)
Contortionist 13- (3)
Conversation 12- (3)
Criminology 13- (3)
Federal Police Powers (3)
KS: Occult 13- (3)
KS: Magic Practitioners, Organizations 13- (3)
KS: Criminal Organizations 13- (3)
KS: Federal Law 13- (3)
KS: Paranormals and their Powers 13- (3)
KS: PRIMUS 13- (3)
Paramedic 13- (3)
PS: USMC Officer 13- (3)
PS: PRIMUS Agent 13- (3)
Tactics 13- (3)
Total Powers & Skills Cost: 113
Total Character Cost: 211

Disadvantages: 100+
Distinctive Features:
Handsome (5)
Physical Limitation:
Subject to Orders, infrequently, greatly (10)
Psychological Limitation:
PRIMUS Code, common, strong (15)
In love with Kimiya Rahman, common, total (20)
Misses combat, uncommon, strong (10)
DNPC:
Kimiya (girlfriend), 11- less powerful, useful (10)
Mother, sister, 8- normal (5)
Reputation:
Protects Innocents, 11- (10)
Well-decorated PRIMUS Agent 8- (5)
Package Bonus (3)
Vulnerability:
1 1/2x Effect from Poisons & Toxins (15)
Watched by:
PRIMUS, more powerful, NCI, 8- (8)
Total Disadvantage Points: 211

Average Wizard Agent

Most Wizards agents have been drawn from the core of Intelligence Agents - they have typically investigated cases which have led them into the realm of the supernatural, and have also usually taken flack from their coworkers for having believed there might be more to it than just "technology we don't understand yet."

Agent Erica vonSoden: Now in her mid-thirties, Agent vonSoden's first career was as a high school history teacher. Quickly disenchanted with the reality of teaching bored teenagers, she returned to college and received a doctorate in Women's Studies - and found there was no job market. A cousin had recently joined PRIMUS and recommended she look into the possibility of a career there. While she tested negative for Cyberline tolerance (something she was relieved about!), she proceeded through the PRIMUS Academy, finishing several days shy of her thirtieth birthday. Always intrigued by humanity's fascination for the occult, she was one of the first agents to sign up for detached duty as part of the Wizards. Agent vonSoden is an attractive woman with short, sculpted brown hair. She dresses primarily in business suits and is a well-spoken woman. Quite often she finds herself given public relations tasks, because, as Area Director Hendricks once bluntly pointed out, she's the most presentable agent in the South East area. She is frequently partnered with Agent Homer Wenger.

Agent Homer Wenger: A nervous agent in his mid-twenties, Homer Wenger was one of the youngest agents to graduate from the PRIMUS Academy. His bachelor's degree is in biochemistry - and he has been obsessed since childhood with being able to document the existence of ghosts, and since becoming a Wizards agent, his quest has become all consuming. Admittedly more of a "lab rat" than a field agent, Agent Wenger is most frequently found with his nose in a book or checking reading in the lab. Think a shorter Egon with a nervous tic.

Dr. Matthew Stanton Folcroft:
Younger son of a wealthy Boston family, Folcroft received a Harvard Ph.D in psychology, specializing in the occult. He published several books on magical practices in Appalachia that were well received academically and a pair of pop-culture books on the Wiccan movement, all published under pseudonyms to prevent his family from being embarrassed socially by the subject material. When his brother transferred to PRIMUS some time later, Folcraft was proud of him - and was consequently grief-stricken when Denton was killed in combat with a creature summoned by a group of cultists. Folcraft volunteered his services, and soon found himself proceeding through the Academy and subsequently in the Wizard program. Stanton is tall and trim with blonde hair and blue eyes.

Average Wizards Agent
VAL CHA COST Roll Notes
13 STR 3 12- 150 kg; 3 1/2d6 [1]
16 DEX 18 12- OCV: 5/DCV: 5
13 CON 6 12-
12 BODY 4 11-
19 INT 9 13- PER Roll 13- (3)
18 EGO 16 13- ECV: 6
20 PRE 10 13- PRE Attack: 4D6
14 COM 2 12-
5 PD 2
5 ED 2
3 SPD 4 Phases: 4, 8, 12
6 REC 0
26 END 0
26 STUN 0

Total Characteristics Cost: 76
Movement: Running 6"/12"

Powers & Skills
Combat Training:
Combat Skill Levels: 4 Levels w/ All Range Mods (12)
Weapon Familiarity: Small Arms (2)
Martial Arts-PRIMUS Agent Training (24)
Martial Strike +0 +2 4 1/2D6
Martial Throw +0 +1 2 1/2d6 + V/5
Killing Strike -2 +0 1d6+1 KA
Choke Hold -2 0 2d6 NND
Martial Disarm -1 +1 STR 23 Disarm
Martial Block +2 +2 Block, Abort

Agent Training:
Breakfall 12- (3)
Bugging 13- (3)
Bureaucratics 13- (3)
Computer Programming 13- (3)
Concealment 13- (3)
Conversation 13- (3)
Criminology 14- (5)
Deduction 13- (3)
Disguise 13- (7)
Federal Police Powers (3)
Interrogation 13- (3)
KS: Criminal Organizations 13- (2)
KS: DEMON 16- (5)
KS: Federal Law 13- (2)
KS: Investigative Methods 13- (2)
KS: Occult 16- (5)
KS: Paranormals & their powers 13- (2)
KS: PRIMUS 13- (2)
Paramedic 13- (3)
PS: Previous Career 13- (3)
PS: PRIMUS Agent 13- (3)
Scholar (3)
Security Systems 13- (3)
Shadowing 11- (3)
Stealth 12- (3)
Systems Operation 13- (3)
Tracking 13- (3)
Total Powers & Skills Cost: 124
Total Character Cost: 200

Disadvantages: 100+
DNPC:
Family/Friends (15)
Physical Limitation:
Subject to Orders, infrequently, greatly (10)
Psychological Limitation:
PRIMUS Code, common, strong (15)
Fascinated by the Occult, common, (10)
Reputation:
Protects Innocents, 11- (10)
Fruitcake Wizards Agent (among PRIMUS Personnel) 8- (5)
Package Bonus (3)
Rivalry:
Other PRIMUS Agents(5)
Watched by:
PRIMUS, more powerful, 8- (5)
Total Disadvantage Points: 178