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Welcome to another "Enemies Revisited". This time, I go back to one of the earliest supplements - the Circle / M.E.T.E from the early 80's. I loved both organizations presented in this book but one villain image really jumped out at me, again thanks to Mark Williams' illustration. Gratz was the vampire villain presented to bedevil the mystic heroes of the Circle. When I was doing my Rough Justice campaign and one of the players decided to play a vampire, I knew I had to bring in Gratz. What I did was spin up a background history that fit into my gameworld and a motivation that would put him in direct conflict with the PC. Using Gratz as his middle name, Johann G. Kirchoff was born!
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Background: Johann G. Kirchoff, born in November of 1938, was the only son of Romanian aristocrat Erik Kirchoff and his wife Elizabeth. The boys life was typical until he went away to college in the mid-50's. There he was approached to join an exclusive circle of individuals and joined the group on a weekend excursion to an old castle. After a wild night of drinking and unbridled sex, Johann awoke in the morning feeling very exhausted and unclear on some of the evening's events.
When he returned to college, Johann was immediately contacted to return home. While he was away, his parents had been brutally killed in their own home. Johann immediately broke down and wept for days. When he did not return to school, his circle of friends came to comfort him. They convinced him to come away with them once more and, this time, he met the castle's owner - Dr. David Corday who claimed to be the fabled Count Dracula. The Count took Johann aside and explained that he was different from his parents. This was something the Count discovered upon Johann's last trip to the castle. It was at that moment Johann was able to remember what had happened before: in a drunken state of mind, he had been infected with vampirism by the Count himself. Due to his own unique genetic make-up, Johann had quickly been transformed. Pleased, the Count had sent Johann off to kill his own parents; the young man obeyed. Johann bolted from the castle upon learning the truth, swearing vengeance against Corday and his followers. He immediately changed schools to complete his education. With his inherited wealth, he began to make business investments that would make him a prominent figure in international business. All the while, he continued to research the history of vampirism. He grew to accept what he had become and even met others of his kind who were not as hell bent as Corday and his like. Johann learned of the fabled Sword of Seimei and sought to find it. Along the way, he found a way to come face to face with the demon Tseraphh so he could possess a talisman that was needed to use the Sword, if and when he ever found it. Eventually, Kirchoff's quest took him to Baltimore (1990). He learned of the location of the Sword but also found it was sought by one of the local heroes in the team Rough Justice. Kirchoff eventually acquired the Sword from a collector in Hawaii named Kelei Natai. He now plans to use the Sword to get his revenge against Count Dracula. Appearance: Kirchoff wears designer European business suits to most meetings. When he is on the "hunt" for rogue vampires, he wears a black skin-tight bodysuit with long grey gloves and knee high boots. Around his neck, though most times hidden, hangs a gold chain with his Talisman of Seimei which is very unique looking. He is six feet tall, 195lbs with brown eyes and blonde hair. |
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