A Stalker in the Woods

Born Howard Philip Derringer in the year 1788, Azrael was not always a beast. He was born to human paernts in a small colony of the new world that would later come to call itself New Jersey. His parents died while he was still in his teens, but not before his father had passed on his legacy as a wilderness man. He lived close to the Pine Barrens in a cabin with his parents before they passed away. After their death, he built a new cabin deeper into the woods and lived off the land despite the legends that some devil or evil spirit lived in the deepest parts of the sylvan wilderness. To those few who knew him, he was a recluse, only coming out to hunt for food, trade with the small village just out from the Pine Barrens or guide an unwary settler to the other side of the woods. As he aged he became intimately familiar with the forests, his senses far better than the average colonist's. It was his ability to survive the Barrens that gained him the attention of the watchers in the woods. He was but twenty six and was about to transcend his mortal lifespan.

As he became more and more in tune with the Barrens, he became aware of something in the woods. Something foriegn and alien, predatory and crafty. The feeling mounted until one night in the woods he was accosted by a burglar entering his cabin. They fought and wrestled. Howard tried to grab his rifle but the burglar struck him with ferocious might and inhuman speed. Soon, he was pinned and defeated and the burglar drained him of his blood and left him to die. Or so Howard thought...

When he awoke the next night he was startled into consciousness with the alien hunger of the kindred. His veins ached for blood and in a rage he flew through the forest like a demon, slaughtering anything that came across his path, instinctively drinking the blood of his prey, tearing his bounty to bloody shreds and in some cases eating them raw. When he came to his senses he realized what he had done. He had killed and mutilated two hikers in the woods and brought down four deer and a fox which he had eaten. He managed to reign in the beast before he could eat the hikers but the damage was already done. He had murdered them. The deepest hours of the night were spent burying the bodies and as the sun began to rise, he felt the fury of its touch as his skin began to burn. Fortunately the Barrens offered him some comfort from his new bane and he dove into a swamp to extinguish the flames. It was then he realized that he was dead. He no longer breathed, no longer felt the pumping of his heart within his breast. And as he slumbered off into the day, he realized that there was a Devil in the forest. It was him.

He rose the next night from the swamp, satiated and filled with blood, with a better grasp on what was happening. He did not realize what had happened to him though after the last night's frenzy. He bathed in a stream, changed his clothes and set out for the evening to Freehold. He walked into town to trade that winter night only to find that he was shunned from the village. People stared at him as he walked through the small street to the trading post. Suddenly, some had begun to shout out and point at him and some of the town's hardier men began to beat him. He retreated back into the woods where he knew they would not follow and then as he stoped to drink from a stream he saw his face as it would be for the rest of his days: with the eyes and hair of a wolf. And that was only after his eyes stopped glowing. It shattered his mind and he lived in seclusion for thirteen years.

After the terror of his embrace had passed, he resumed his unlife. Visitors were rare and far between in visits and always oblivious to the fact that he had been cast out from the surrounding towns. He prefered it that way. He no longer believed he had anything in common with humans. He learned to give into his frenzy on the hunt. Word of the Jersey Devil increased as more hikers and animals turned up dead every week. I was after a bear had attacked him and he was tearing it to pieces that his maker appeared again. She approached as he gutted the huge beast and he looked upon her with new eyes, capturing what had been no more than a silhouette that evening he became kindred. She said her name was Fox and that she was here to bring him into the world he no longer knew and to bring him back from the brink of devolution.

The years passed and Howard and Fox traveled the state of New Jersey and eventually moved north into New England. She taught him of the ways and traditions of clan and sect. They formed bonds and tales. They hunted in the wilderness and soon, Fox came to note that Howard's predatorial side, no matter how carefully circumvented, would always come back. She renamed him Azrael, the Angel of Death, to remind him of what he was capable of. Fox, an old Gangrel who had become enlightened in the discipline of animalism, began to control Azrael's beast regularly until Azrael could bring it under his control himself. He never did learn how Fox could tame the beast through animalism, but given a few decades, he learned more mundane ways to control his temper. Even after he became more humane, he kept the name of Azrael as a reminder.

As Azrael learned humanity over again, he came to love Fox and she returned his love. They traveled southward again after five decades and returned to New Jersey, to a new place appearing on the shore. It was to become Atlantic City. Kindred entrepreneurs and elders gathered there to share in the wealth and ample feeding grounds of the blossoming beach town. There, Fox and Azrael stayed on the outskirts of town. City living was too much for Azrael though and eventually, he and Fox returned to the Barrens.

But a new threat now lived in the woods... or rather an old threat which also gave creedence tothe legends of the Jersey Devil. The Garou had taken the entire forest as their own now that Azrael and Fox were gone. Azrael's home was abandonned and shunned and he took it back and Fox and he resided there until one night there was a bettle between resident Uktena and Azrael. They fought and in the end, Azrael was torpored and hidden beneath the earth and the Garou thought themselves victorious. And for thirteen years, they were. Until Fox wakened him with her Diablerist blood. She had committed the act of Diablerie three times, feasting on Sabbat members to raise her fallen childe from his sleep within the earth. He woke to a golgotha of bones; lupine, human and otherwise. Fox and a pack of Brujah had destroyed the werewolves resonsible and brought their corpses to his grave. After that, Azrael followed her back to Atlantic city, no longer wanting to share the woods with garou.

Azrael followed in Fox's footsteps when they arrived. In service to the Camarilla, Azrael killed no less than nine Sabbat, three of which suffered Diablerie by his hands. They were years of blood and elegance in the now well populated Atlantic City. But it was not to last. Eventually, Fox convinced Azrael to leave the city and wander. And wander they did. They journeyed from coast to coast, hunting and travelling across the Great American Desert, travelling with western travellers. They lived in Arizona, California, Oregon, wherever they could find good game and shelter. And eventually, they came back to the East coast.

In 1934 they came back to New England in the port city of Boston. They remained there, guardians of a large park that has dwindled in recent years. But once again, fate separated Childe from Sire. In a vile treachery, Fox was torpored by Boston's Sheriff, an unknown Sabbat spy. Azrael led a small coterie of kindred to avenge her from the shadows. Urging them on to set things right. Soon after the sheriff was revealed to be Sabbat, the political structure began to crumble. That and a combination of Justicar Xavier's decision to leave the Camarilla led Azrael to leave Boston and the Camarilla behind him. Now, he wanders on a quest to find someone to revive his lost sire and lover. Even now, he has a new home in the woods, a stone circle. And there, he waits and watches, old instincts beginning to take over again.

People say that the Jersey Devil still roams and that he spreads children of his own in the night throughout the east coast. Azrael is one of them: a stalker in the woods and a predator of man and beast. And in the darkness there will be no mercy.

Character Attributes

Physical Traits

Strength: •••
Dexterity: •••
Stamina (Tireless):••••

Social Traits

Charisma: ••
Manipulation: •••
Appearance: •

Mental Traits

Perception: •••
Intelligence: ••
Wits: •••

Talents

Alertness: •
Athletics: ••
Brawl: •••
Dodge: ••
Intimidation: •
Subterfuge: ••

Skills

Animal Ken: •••
Firearms: ••
Melee: •••
Stealth: •••
Survival: ••

Knowledges

Linguistics (Dutch, German): ••
Investigation: •

Disciplines

Animalism: •••
Fortitude: ••
Protean: •••••
Obfuscate: •

Backgrounds

Generation: •••
Mentor (Fox, torpored): ••

Virtues

Conscience: ••
Self-Control: •••
Courage: •••

Other Traits

Lupine Lore: •
City Secrets (Boston): •

Humanity
•••••

Willpower
•••

Blood Pool (Maximum)
••••••••••
•••

Weakness

Gains An Animal Feature
After Each Frenzy