Signor Adriano Crescenzi's page

I created this character for a horror survival game, but if we're going Victorian "nobility" the Papal State might have a vested interest.

Country: Vatican City

One or two lines about appearance: Signor Crescenzi dresses in a red and black robe, hiding his rank in the Catholic Church as somewhere either in the Jesuit practices or between the ranks of Cardinal and Bishop. Whether he is deserving of his title remains to be seen.

Recent family history–why do they need to take handouts? Are they poor, or merely shameless?

Signor Crescenzi has for a long time been a researcher into the metaphysical reality of evil, with a special interest in the rites of exorcism and the occult. The Papal Authorities have recently ceased funding for all studies into the supernatural, preferring to focus more on astronomic studies. Signor Crescenzi sees this as an opportunity to expand his fortunes enough to conduct some rather dangerous experiments and to expand his estate in Italy so that he has a place to perform them. The Crescenzi family is an old nobility, having held high positions in the Vatican State and the Holy Roman Empire for at least 800 years, though there is some evidence to support that it is a longer period of time.

Why would an assassin want to kill them?*
Earlier in his religious career, Signor Crescenzi alienated quite a few people by performing exorcisms outside of the Church's direction or permission. The results were... less than pleasant, ending in the deaths of several people (and at least two being driven completely insane). This has made Signor Crescenzi a target for the hate of several people, and even some organizations.

I just had some ideas (Well dreams, really). If you think that magic is too powerful for this type of game, you could have it not work at all in the Other world, or potentially work against the caster (although that would put me in a rather tight situation with little access to my main class abilities).

Also, is The Silver Prince still with us, and what type of character is he playing, or do we know yet? I'm squishy and need a meat shield. :P

Its in the Modern Adventures book, listed under the Sorcerer Class description. Pg 31. Apparently the book does allow for (some) magic in a modern campaign, and the three bloodlines presented indicate some of the more interesting archetypes of modern psychic abilities.

As for fleshing the characters out, its a little difficult to choose traits as most of the traits in Pathfinder have some reference to magic or saving throw bonuses I'm not sure we'll come up against in this type of campaign.

May I present Signor Adriano Crescenzi, Spiritualist in service to the Pontifical Household (if allowed)

Although young for a Catholic priest, Signor Crescenzi was granted a special dispensation by the Pope due to his devotions to his college and seminary studies. He has spent much of his time both as a full-fledged priest and as an acolyte, in the study of modern psychology and the interactions between human psyche and religion. Witnessing a supposed "demonic possession" in his youth intrigued the young Adriano in the dangers that the human mind could hold, and a curiosity into the nature of supernatural evil (if such a thing exists). Although his studies into such possibilities were intense, most of the confirmed texts indicated that most cases of demonic possession were nothing more than malreligious psychoses.

Still, there were a few cases that indicated something real and evil. Something beyond the pulp fiction films and novels that the mainstream media continued to churn out. Signor Crescenzi intended to use his connections in the Vatican to pursue the leads to the truly bizarre and unexplained.

As he continued to offer his services as a theologian and psychologist to the Roman Catholic Church, Adriano Crescenzi came across an unusual find in the Archives: a jeweled crucifix which no archaeological dating method had yet been able to date. After the death of the last Pope, his access to the Archives were rescinded and Signor Crescenzi found himself looking for work in odd places, such as in the States where he used his knowledge of psychology and religion to denounce false exorcism rituals, fake demonic possessions, and to generally downplay the entire Possession angle, a stance which the Catholic Church officially adopted several decades ago.

Notes As a Spiritualist Sorcerer, Adriano Crescenzi is plagued by strange and sometimes haunting events of things moving and activating on their own. I intend to have him roleplay his spells and supernatural abilities as something beyond his conscious awareness, and as startling and unusual for a skeptic mind such as his own to experience.

The crucifix has an ancient dagger hidden in its interior, but this is not something that Adriano is aware of at first. It is an unusual design crucifix and interesting enough that Signor Crescenzi adopted its usage for his business card design. It is heavily jeweled and this is the main reason why his total available funds is overspent by 50.00.

I will come up with more backstory and character background, as required. But I wanted to put out what I had already both to get the Go Ahead, and to inspire others who might have difficulty coming up with a character idea.