Pre-generated PC's for a convention game that I ran last year entititled "The Melissa Virus."

A young patient from the Toland Institute for Pediatric Psychopathology is missing and it's the PC's job to find her. The Institute is run by child psychologist Dr. Gregory Toland from his estate in the Marin Headlands. He's been using an unconventional "fringe" therapy using sleep deprivation and a "virtual reality" simulator (called the Nexus Interface) he designed with assistance from an unknown benefactor.

Meanwhile, Gammon Kruze (the estranged son of Doctor Toland) had just broken of out jail where he was serving a life sentence for conspiracy, murder and terrorism. Kruze is searching for the girl, for she's carrying in her body an alien lifeform called Prometheus, transmitted into her brain via the Nexus Interface. The virus needs to join with a human consciousness that is about to ascend into the Invisible Clergy. Through it's own complex logic, it believes this will grant it a soul. Kruze is the Godwalker of The Cyborg, a powerful archetype that has only recently come to realization as an avatar.

K Ghast

K Ghast is a total space-case. She's into psychic surgery, dolphin linguistics, UFOs and of course, hallucinogens and mind-altering experiences. Partly, this is due to her hippy parents (they named her K, duh) but mostly it's due to her magickal abilities as an Oneiromancer -- a dream mage. K publishes a web 'zine called "Caffeine Enthusiast" and runs a successful graphic arts company (she is hella talented with Adobe Photoshop). She keeps in communication with other Sleepwalkers across the country (and a few in Japan and Europe) and is proud of her autographed picture of Timothy Leary. She knows Greg Toland from her earlier days in medicine before she dropped out. She actually served in several sleep-dep studies and was surprised when he called her and invited her to his home in Northern California.

Jamie Calavera

Jamie Calavera is a relatively young member of the Federal Marshalls, the division of US law enforcement responsible for intra-state transport of criminals as well as apprehension of dangerous felons. Jamie has been tasked with the location and capture of Gammon Kruze (aka Nicholas Toland), a convicted murderer, conspirator and cult leader who has recently ascaped from San Quentin. Jamie is married and has two very young children and is generally happy and easy-going. Because of her father's suicide death a few years ago, he has had doubts about his profession, especially after witnessing some disturbing behavior from fellow officers.

Marcus Milo Dot

Milo Dot is a computer science nerd from Boston. He attended MIT when he graduated from high school and is still there, persuing a Masters (in Computer Science and Math). Besides his fanatatical zest for all things crypto, he also has a passion for computer viruses and artificial life. In fact, recent research in the field has led to some stimulating e-mail correspondence with a researcher from Atlanta named Rebecca, Darling (yes, she uses the comma...delightfully weird, isn't it?). Milo isn't aware that he carries a strange psionic power called "Neurolinguistics." It allows him to psychically "tap" into the genetic language of Humanity and utilize this "source code" to discern patterns in both language and mathematics. Unconsciously tapping into this ability, he finds code-breaking a challenging but rewarding task. He also has a knack for foreign languages (he knows French, German and Russian at present...English is still tricky).

Warner Vent

Warner Vent is former gynecologist who lost his license to practice medicine after a series of assault charges filed against him by his patients. Obsessed with medicine (actually his ideal of the female body) he drove his Porsche into a guardrail at 90 miles per hour. He survived. In the hospital, he met Dr. Emerich Xao, a strange older man who worked in the trauma ward. Dr. Xao is an adept of Velomancy and lives on a small farm outside the city limits (although he seems to be growing scrap metal and rusted auto parts). His "farm" sports a dirt track where he races salvaged cars bought scavenged from police impound lots and junkyards. The obvious connection is that those cars were junked after being involved in fatal or near-fatal collisions. Warner Vent spends most of his time at Xao's farm, where the venerable mage has gathered quite the odd following. Lately, Vent has been working on an artistic project: erotically photographed victims of vehicular crashes accompanied by text detailing the accident in their own words.

Rebecca, Darling

Rebecca, Darling is a talented researcher in the field of communicable diseases. Unfortunately for her career, she has become involved in the study of viral information (called memes) and such interest has given her a reputation as a bit of a fringe weirdo. Her work has brought her into correspondence (via Internet) with a young grad student from MIT named Milo Dot. A weird name, yes, but he's the first male to appreciate you for your mind. Rebecca, (the comma is an affectation) changed her name after an ex-boyfriend stalked and harassed her. Since then, she has moved twice and taken self-defense classes. She will not be a victim.

Crawford Cray

Cray was born a ward of the State of New York back in the 60's. He speculates that his birth mother was either raped or was a prostitute. From then on he was shuffled from state home to foster home until he ended up in JuVee when he was 14. After a hard life involving a few stays in prison, he ended back on the streets and left some bad ponies to move out West. Since then he has operated a modest investigation business, occassionally working Pro Bono. He has worked with Dr. Toland on two other occassions, usually to investigate abusive parents or locate runaways. Cray is an avatar of the Gunslinger, the mythic incarnation of the Knight Errant, dedicated to battling injustice. His avatar skill allows him to use his Avatar: Gunslinger skill in place of his social skills to persuade and intimidate with his authority. He cannot allow an innocent to come to harm, either through action or inaction. His "Armor of Truth" is his silver cigarette case...a "gift" from a wiseguy back Upstate.

Dale Argent

Dale Argent witnessed his first Unnatural event at an early age, when he was haunted by a malevolent being that lived in his closet and threatened to kill his parents. When he didn't grow out of this common childhood fear, his parents took him to see various therapists. It didn't help. Dale began to see the creature more often and not just in his bedroom closet. Soon, he almost became used to his walls dripping black slime, strange noises and blasts of frigid air in the middle of August. Years passed...Dale became somewhat obsessed by strange phenomena (also called "Forteana") and his interest caught the eye of a professor at the University he was attending. This professor got Dale an internship at Unified Future Systems, a multi-national tech company based on the West Coast. Eventually, Argent¸ was hired as a research assistant and learned of the company's true purpose: to monitor and terminate occult entities. He learned about the Invisible Clergy and the archetypes and how the creature that haunted his childhood may well have been an avatar of a powerful archetype called "The Boogeyman." Argent was trained as a field operative and sent out with the mission of discovering and (if possible) eliminating powerful avatars. By doing this, UFS would ensure the continuing survival of human existence as we know it, an existence without the Machievllan power-plays of the Clergy.