Father Adrian Vale

Father Adrian Vale

Composure Initiative: 7    Corruption: 2    Sanctity: Fully Effective

Magical Tier Access: Tier 3    Permanent WP spent: 3 (Wound Point maximum reduced from 12 to 9)

Background

Adrian Vale was ordained at twenty-six and posted to a routine urban parish. Three transfers followed within a decade, each one trailing an incident the diocese preferred not to put in writing: a woman in Coventry speaking languages she had never studied, a child in Galway describing deaths he could not have witnessed, a priest in Lyon who barricaded himself in his own sacristy for eleven days. Vale was the one who went in after him.

Word of Lyon reached the Order of Mercy's regional exorcist within the week, and he came to see for himself. There was not much of a job interview left to have: Vale had already done the work three times over, without training, without backup, and without a name for what he had been confronting. What the Order supplied was the name, the procedure, and centuries of institutional weight behind both. The composure and the clinical patience were already his.

He has since conducted forty-seven documented interventions, twelve of them full exorcisms. Three remain in the Order's files as unresolved: the subject survived, the entity did not leave cleanly, and Vale has never put on record exactly what happened in those sessions. He does not dramatize a closed case. He shows up, does the work, and leaves.

He carries two kinds of authority: the Church's formal kind, and the kind that comes from a face that has plainly been through worse than whatever is currently in front of it.

Skills

Faction Passive — Rite of Office (Order of Mercy): When Father Vale performs or assists a sanctioned rite under proper Catholic authority (Exorcism, Deliverance, formal blessing, or formal demonic identification procedure), add 1 Boon die to the check. Because he is ordained and holds the Sacraments hard-gated skill, a rite that draws on Sacraments instead adds 2 Boon dice . The passive does not apply to improvised spiritual confrontation or rites performed outside ecclesial authority. Sacraments is also what carries his formal Exorcism Mandate, so his Stage 3 Binding is conducted under valid mandate rather than improvised.

Talents

Father Vale's talents are all standard Chapter Six purchases. He is what a player character can become with twenty years and a permanent cost paid up front.

Opening Rite (Exorcism Tree, Tier 1, Chapter Six): Father Vale may lead a formal exorcism procedure against an established possession (the full five-stage procedure is in Chapter Eight). During Stage 1 (Diagnosis) he may also identify whether a possession is partial, full, feigned, or externally anchored. This is the gate talent: without it, a character with Deliverance may assist but cannot lead.

Compel Manifestation (Exorcism Tree, Tier 2, Chapter Six): During Stage 3 (Binding) or Stage 4 (Confrontation), Father Vale can force a possessing entity to produce a sign, react audibly, or reveal leverage information. The entity cannot fully conceal itself from him once rite contact is established.

Litany of Pressure (Exorcism Tree, Tier 3, Chapter Six): During Stage 4 (Confrontation), he may spend Boon results from rite checks to reduce the entity's next resistance roll, add Bane dice to its next action, or recover one step of procedural progress.

Test the Spirit (Discernment Tree, Tier 1, Chapter Six): Add 1 Boon die to Discernment checks made to identify possession, false miracles, demonic deception, or profanation.

Name Fragment (True Name Tree, Tier 1, Chapter Six): Father Vale can hold partial leverage over an entity through a title, epithet, office, or historical name. He adds 1 Boon die to resistance checks against that entity, and it cannot lie to him completely while he holds the fragment.

Name Against Lie (True Name Tree, Tier 2, Chapter Six): When resisting deception from an entity whose name fragment he holds, he adds 2 Boon dice , and the entity must answer one direct question truthfully before attempting deception again.

The Horror Does Not Win Tonight (Iron Will Tree, Tier 3, Chapter Six): Father Vale does not rattle. He reduces Strain gained from supernatural fear, oppressive dread, and infernal spiritual pressure by 1 per incident, to a minimum of 0.

Equipment

• Clerical field kit — black clerical shirt, Roman collar, charcoal field coat; practical and understated in any environment
• Silver crucifix — worn on the person at all times; functions as a consecrated melee weapon (1 WD) against entities with a weakness to consecrated objects
• Holy water ×3 (vials) — standard field load; 1 WD on contact for applicable entities
• Aspergillum — enables area-blessing checks without consuming individual vials
• Worn ritual book — Father Vale's annotated Exorcism Mandate, twenty years of field notation; reduces difficulty of Stage 1 (Diagnosis) and Stage 2 (Preparation) by one step on cases involving entity profiles he has encountered before
• Leather satchel — carries all field materials; reinforced, nondescript
• Light Pistol — rarely drawn; standard rounds; carried because the kit requires it, not because he expects to use it