Cypher System Cypher System Character Sheet: Victor "Poe" Campo

CAREER POLICE INVESTIGATOR

Detective Victor Campo was a workaholic member of the Missing Persons Unit at his local Chicago precinct. Known within The Force for his remarkable success rate in locating whoever it was that was his quarry, he had no time for relationships or much else outside of policework. His spartan apartment showed little signs of habitation and, with the stacks of Manila file folders everywhere, the red conspiracy yarn, and his very own Big Board with tacked on photos set up in his living room, it kind of just looked like a satellite extension of his precinct house. The only difference was that it had more dirty piles of laundry, more discarded paper coffee cups, a thoroughly slept-in sofa and a neglected and perfectly made bed.

A SPECIAL KNACK FOR FINDING THE LOST

Victor had always explained away his investigatory success rate as just the product of his diligence, keen observation skills, and, well, the complete lack of a social life. Any detective would tell you that a lot of their career would rely on the occasional lucky hunch but, for Victor, there were times when he would inexplicably get literal flashes of imagery in his mind’s eye of locations and faces cluing him to places and people he needed to desperately find. Moreover, there were the moments he could not explain when he felt like he was hearing actual cries of help from kidnapped victims and runaways right inside his head. Though these started to happen more and more, he would dismiss them as the products of sleep deprivation and wishful thinking.

AN UNEXPECTED REVELATION

It was around this time that he began to notice a big black raven that seemed to always turn up when he was hitting the streets in pursuit of an abduction case. The bird would look like it was paying him specific attention, cocking his head and cawing at him until he acknowledged it. Sometimes it would appear to wait for him atop a fence or hydrant if only to lead him around the city when he approached. No one else seemed to see the bird and, when he would try to take a picture of it, it would not appear in his photos.

He’ll never forget the time he was assigned to locate and recover an elderly woman named Madame Sojourn, a former fortune teller suffering from severe dementia. Upon finding her, she, in a rare moment of clarity, informed him that she knew that he was the one coming to find her. Despite meeting for the first time, she addressed him by his full name and when she spoke to him, she alternated between speaking to his face and to the bird that she could clearly see.

FEDERAL SERVICE

This spooked Victor but before he could take the time to digest this revelation, he was mysteriously transferred out of the police and recruited into the Department of Metahuman Affairs Search & Rescue strike force. A couple weeks have since passed and in that time Victor has received guidance by some of the psychics and totem mages in the employ of the department as to the nature of his little avian companion. He still doesn't quite understand but he has since named the bird Lenore.