And I don't want the world to see me,
'cause I don't think that they'd understand.
When everything's made to be broken,
I just want you to know who I am.

And you can't fight the tears that ain't coming,
Or the moment of truth in your lies.
When everything feels like the movies,
And you bleed just to know you're alive.

-The Wallflowers, Goo Goo Dolls

Necker.  Nazghul Wyrmsbane.  Nathanael.  These are only a few of the names given to one who might very well be the greatest mass murderer of supernaturals of his time.  But who is he really?

Necker : The Beginning

Necker first began as a ... well ... poor man's parody of a Euthanatos.  I had just seen The Crow and decided that would make a splendid character.  So Necker, whose name vaguely came from Necromancy, was concieved as a fellow waking up in an alleyway with amnesia who was raised by the Spirit of Death to run around alleys in black, killing criminals and occasionally playing the guitar as a crow fluttered around.  Fifteen minutes into his first adventure two humans pumped a few rounds into him and left him for dead.

Mostly because the Game Master didn't want to spend another two hours watching me concieve and write up another such creation, Necker was saved by a Son of Ether.  I think he was barabbi. But with Sons of Ether, who can really tell?  From this unnamed Mage, Necker 'learned' that he was a Euthanatos and what Euthanatos did was kill people.  Plain and simple.  Therefore he should just go right out and start killing.  This remains a hard habit to break to this day.   This Mage sent Necker in search of a group doing research into Paradox, but Necker only got so far as to talk briefly to one of their members, an Order of Hermes Mage known as Adrian Silber.

Mages and Mummies, Oh My

During Necker's second outing, he was once again shot near to death by a lone human about fifteen minutes after play started.  And then as soon as he woke up, he set off a bomb that would have killed him without a little Deus ex Machina from a second irritated Game Master that came in the form of a Virtual Adept.  Named CD Rom, this Adept very much colored Necker's perceptions of what Mages are like along with another Adept named 1984.

CD Rom loved to Correspond people.  Walking? No need. Driving? Lets just Correspond the whole car!  Paradox went off around him all the time, hurting himself and others in the process.  From this Necker learned that magic is dangerous unless under tight control.  1984, meanwhile, decided he would awaken a mortal by Corresponding the image of a nuclear bomb blast where his head was.  The ensuing paradox left him a headless corpse and his wraith bound by a mummy, whom Necker would later make deals with in return for access to magic tomes.  This taught Necker that Mages were a fairly insane bunch.  Yes, Necker likes to generalize, but so far that's rarely steered him wrong.  So by the end of his second adventure Necker was already developing great contempt for his fellow Mages.

Violence of Shifters/Innocence of the Technocracy

Next, Necker was invited along on an adventure to avenge the death of the father of Adrian Simms, a Virtual Adept, alongside Mages, a Bastet, and a Werewolf.  Though the actual plot was quite convoluted, Necker missed most of it focusing only on a few bits.  The important scenes for Necker ;were the beginning, where an Orphan Mage Necker recently encountered complained he was unarmed and couldn't fight the Technocracy, who we assumed killed the elder Simms. Necker, always willing to help destruction, gave yhis boy, Randy Craig, a pistol, passed in an airport in plain view of everyone, though their combined 10 dots of Arcane masked this.  This began a long standing partnership as Necker helped teach Randy of his warped version of the life of a Mage.  Earlier, an Akashic Brother named Qui Chi destroyed a magic sword Randy owned because it belonged to a Black Spiral Dancer and Randy's player often muses how if Qui Chi had taken the time to teach Randy, he could have been a powerful force for the Traditions, instead of how he eventually ended up.

The next important scene was the attack on the Technomancers' mansion where Necker, having been told they were the enemy, ran around killing maids while the werewolf, Fishbone, that joined them ran outside to slay the gardeners.  This was Necker's first taste of mass murder.  And despite all his regrets about it at a later date, he's never really turned back.

The final scene where we all learned that the Technomancers were really innocent and the accident that killed Simms' father was really just that, an accident, was also pivotal to Necker's understanding of things.  This taught him to not rely on other people's opinions, but wait to make his own judgements, no matter how many people disagreed with him. And people would forever be disagreeing with him.

Blood : Does a Body Good

After this, he began to explore magic to a greater extent, achieving at least minimal knowledge in all Spheres.   The first thing he did was try to 'Sense all' with enough levels of Correspondance and Spirit to put him into shock. After the second time this happened, he learned to assert some control on the effect, thus reinforcing the lesson of where power with no control leads.  Honing his magic, he located a supernatural party where he first encountered Vampires and members of the Cult of Ecstacy.  The first Cultist he met gave Necker the impression they were all psychotic sadists.  Few others of that Tradition have ever changed his mind.  Naturally, as Mages and Vampires were involved, a battle ensued and there Necker learned the power of the blood of the damned when he was shown that by drinking it, he could gain part of a Vampire's power as a ghoul.  This began an addiction which took years and some rather extreme circumstances to break.  The addiction was, on the surface, to Vampire blood, but it was really an addiction to power in all its forms.

So, This is Your Library

Next came one of the largest turning points in Necker's history.  Accidently drawn into a Quiet that Qui Chi was experiencing in the Akashic Library, Necker, Randy, and their ally Alicia Pradesh, a Cult of Ecstacy Mage, were given the aspects of the Triat of Werewolf mythos in a bizarre passion play.  Randy became the Wyld, experiencing the feeling of boundless creation.  Alicia found herself as the Weaver, shaping and building things of beauty and glory.  And Necker?  He was the Wyrm, essence of destruction.  Up until this moment he relished killing and wreaking havoc.  And as the Wyrm, he reveled in his part, crushing creation at every turn and ignoring all warnings, until at last only he remained.  Alone forever after experiencing destruction in all its myriad forms.  Not overly stable to begin with and missing most of the memories of his life, Necker did the obvious thing when confronted with this situation.

He went mad.

Not the normal madness that most Mages are struck with, that of blind hubris or violent psychosis, but a horrible deep seated insanity that comes from too much knowledge and no where near enough experience.  It has later been suggested in rather hushed whispers that Necker went Wyld that day, becoming a Marauder.  Or perhaps while the others escaped from the Quiet, Necker never did and remains in it still.  But proving this remains difficult and no group has wished to risk dozens or more of their membership in the attempt, given Necker's violent habits.

Nazghul Rising

While adapting to his transformation, Necker 'settled down' in St. Darque's Chantry.  Which to this day sticks in my memory as the most dangerous group of Mages ever played.  As a brief interlude, listed here are their members in minor detail.

Randall Craig - The First Seal : Conquer

Seventeen year old Orphan Mage who was Necker's partner, best friend, and field commander.  He also picked up Necker's belief in reincarnation as well as Necker's reliance on personal judgements instead of believing the hype.  At his peak in the Chantry was at Arete 7, Master of Forces, Mind, and Prime.
Zachariah Sczcdlik Jr. aka Zak Mak aka Dr. Vulgar - The Second Seal : War
Near legendary Son of Ether.  By the age of fifteen he was a Master of Life, Matter, and Prime and the creator of the material Zakium used to create the infamous Dr. Vulgar bullets which did aggrivated damage and were distributed casually about the world.
Alicia Pradesh - The Third Seal : Balance
The most 'human' of the Chantry, this Cultist of Ecstacy was a deadly swordswoman and a Master of Spirit and Time.  She was the oldest of the four members of the field team at the age of nineteen.
Necker - The Fourth Seal : Death
At the last time he faught beside his Chantry members, Necker had an Arete of 7 and had 3 'dots' in each Sphere of magik.  He was eighteen at the time.
Jonathan St. Darque - The Fifth Seal : The Death of the Last Martyr
An ex-Tremere Vampire, cured by magick he became an Orphan Adept of Spirit.  An expert in the arts of binding, he possessed a Nexus Crawler, bound to his will and was the founder of the Chantry, financing it, though unfortunately offering less guidance than required by such a young group of Mages.
Adrian Simms - The Sixth Seal : Black Sun and Blood Moon
Magickally speaking, he is not very powerful.  Not even an adept, this Chaotician still functioned admirably as a predictor of general areas of difficulty so that the field team could be sent in to investigate and deal with the situation.  Despite his lack of magickal ability he became reknown as the Man who hacked MECHA II.  A minor legend among his fellow Virtual Adepts, he nevertheless believed in fixing the real world rather than escaping into a virtual one.
David Duchovich - The Seventh Seal : A Silence in Heaven
At one time, middle partner in a team that included the current head of the New World Order and John Courage, Duchovich was an infiltrator in the Chantry.  However, who exactly he was infiltrating remained a mystery.  A triple agent at the very least, Duchovich played both ends against the middle in a web of deciet even he never understood.  An Adept of Correspondance, Life, and Mind, he proved useful in situations when a quick escape was neccesary and he could always be trusted to come through in the end, though never in the way that was expected or desired.
During his initial month in the Chantry, Necker began experimenting with varied types of dark powers.  Buying Vampires for their blood, using self-torture as a focus instead of dance, and heavily arming himself with the finest weapons Dr. Vulgar could create, Necker began his new life as an 'incarnation of the Wyrm'.  He even ceased sleeping, using magic instead while hanging off a sun dance pole when he rested.  Visualizing himself as the True Wyrm whose servants were corrupted, he embarked on a quest to do battle with the Wyrm.  He discarded his old name, deciding on the nom du guerre 'Nazghul Wyrmsbane'.  His activities brought him into numerous combat situations with agents of the Wyrm as well as the Technocracy, including a battle in which Randy, Necker and Dr. Vulgar slaughtered an entire squadron of Void Engineers when the Engineers invaded Dr. Vulgar's Horizon Realm, Oz.

Necker and Randy spent some time next following a lead on a mystical chess set whose pieces were reputed to give the owner great powers. Necker was made part of 'The Game' when he was mysteriously sent a medallion in the image of a snake biting its own tail curled about like an infinity symbol which bound itself to Necker's being. Of note in this adventure was that an Assamite was hired to kill Randy and Necker to retrieve the chess pieces they found, though he was no match for them and was easily dispatched. However this meant that no longer could Assamites be contracted to kill Necker, having tried once and failed. While on this mission, Alicia stopped to visit and she and Randy were asked to come to a meeting of Euthanatos who wished their opinion of St. Darque. They were not overly kind when speaking of him, though when the subject of Necker was brought up, they gave him shining praise and the Euthanatos, who had gotten similar responses from others who had worked with Necker, decided to not persue any reports of Necker behaving improperly any further for the time being.

During another occasion, Necker did battle alongside the mad Silent Strider Zhare Pawlyk and a zero Humanity 5th Generation Vampire named Russel 'The Love Muscle' Bernstein against a squadron of Men in Black and HIT Marks resulting in the destruction of most of La Guardia airport.  When Necker parted company with the others, he was left with a heavily armored Spectre Limosine, an armored suit, hat, and trenchcoat once worn by a Man in Black and a Vampire named Jim Moore whom Russel had just embraced for no reason that sanity could explain.

Blackest of Wells

One day, Adrian Simms told the field team that something major was going to go down in Toyko, Japan very soon.  After a rather ridiculous multiple botch, on Necker's part when trying to sneak weapons, ammunition, and Vampire blood through airport security was fixed by Randy via Mind magicks, the field team reached Toyko.  Along with Euthanatos David Sanctions, Celestial Chorister Laura Davidson and Cultist of Ecstacy Dato Crash, they pinpointed the problem to an opening of the newest corporate headquarters of Blackwell Enterprises.  The ceremonies, which took place on an old Japanese burial ground -don't they always- went awry and the upshot was that the player characters were sucked into the Deep Umbra while trying to fight off spirits.  Unfortunately their Master of Spirit Alicia wasn't around at the time so it took numerous adventures before the party escaped the Deep Umbra.  Most notable among these was Dato's hitting random buttoms when Randy and Necker were trying to figure out an alien device they found.  Dato accidently covered them with flame which ended with Dato getting chased until he fled into airless space and died.

At the end of their Umbral travels, the Chantry discovered several alternate versions of Dr. Vulgar were plotting to destroy the world in a mad grab for Magickal power. Dispatching them without a second thought was effective, though it made their own Dr. Vulgar realize how easy it would be psychologically and physically for them to kill him, causing some tension between them all.

Soon after their escape, the Chantry was contacted by the head of Blackwell Enterprises, Jonathan Blackwell.  Randy, Necker, Sanctions, Alicia, and an Akashic Brother named Lane Christerson met him and he explained he wasn't really at fault earlier and he also offered to pay them each five million dollars to stop some terrorists from unleashing nuclear havoc on the Eastern United States.  The characters were all a bit skeptical but went along with it anyway, Necker being the one to save the day by catching the magickal nuclear power container before it shattered and released the energy.  Sanctions, who said he wanted knowledge in return for doing this was fairly upset when Blackwell sent him a note saying 'By going on this adventure, you have gained knowledge.'  On the plus side, Necker got five million dollars which he gave to Sanctions along with some stock tips gathered with Magick, netting them both a bundle.

After attacks by the Technocracy on the Chantry, the Mages relocated to the desert over an abandoned nuclear missle launch site code named Ranch Omega.  Again the Chantry helped Blackwell corral some giant ants that his people made and then let loose.  He claimed it was an accident and he didn't know his company was creating giant ants.  The characters remained skeptical once more.

Next, Randy, Necker, Alicia and three Cultists of Ecstacy including Tim Benzadream who the Chantry hired as a cook, were apparently invited to a Blackwell party.  It turned out to be a mass hallucination caused by a disembodied brain in pain.  A rather silly fight broke out when one of the Cultists decided to poke at the brain, Necker batted her out of the way with his shotgun barrel to stop her from hurting it, and her mentor tried to defend her by bashing Necker over the head with his guitar.  Fortunately Tim was there and he kept getting in the way of the attack, taking the hits himself as he shouted at the others 'Do you know who Necker is? If you hit him, he will kill you!'  Eventually Necker asked the brain 'What do you want', the brain screamed 'Help me!' with mental waves, and Necker shot it rather than let it continue suffering.  The Cultists were annoyed and wandered off with Randy, Necker and Alicia heading in another direction.

Necker then encountered Blackwell again while with Roland and a New World Order agent named Dirk Face. First, Blackwell offered Necker a chance to go back in time and kill Hitler before he became what history knows him as. After a good deal of debate between the Mages present, Necker decided he would not, even if Blackwell had such power. His reasoning being that despite Hitler's evil, without it perhaps an even greater one would have surfaced and Necker felt he did not have enough understanding of the situation to interfere. Apparently, this being some test which Necker passed, Blackwell then handed Necker a briefcase. Inside contained all legal documents regarding Kenneth Whitehead, young intelligent charismatic pro-euthanasia activist who just entered college a year early. The case, which Blackwell explained was coded soley to Necker's DNA also contained a New World Order memo ordering his assassination which apparently was completed. Noting the location it took place, Necker realized that he was Kenneth Whitehead, and when he awoke in the alleyway so long ago it was because he managed to survive a bullet through the brain with Magick and his Spark of Life. Blackwell then told Necker that he knew who the assassin was in case Necker wanted revenge and that he had a Magickal ring created that could restore Necker's memories by just slipping it on. Necker had no wish for revenge but took the ring, the decision to not use it and return it taking a week or so. Necker's reasoning being that his past self was obviously not a capable Mage, taking only a single sniper's bullet to fell him. He was weak and even though others apparently found him smarter and more personable than Necker, being those things got him nowhere but dead. As for his would-be assassin, Necker had long since learned that the New World Order saught to protect humanity from Things Beyond, and since they were shooting Kenneth, Kenneth was obviously a threat. Therefore Necker could not find fault in the assassin's action for after all, he was just doing his job.

Soon after this, a series of events occured which tore apart the Chantry.  Among these were the apparent suicide of Dr. Vulgar and  the divorce of Randy and Alicia.

Road Trip

When the Chantry disbanded, Necker took his Spectre Limosine, stuck Jim Moore, who by now he was blood bonded too, in the trunk and drove off on a series of adventure fighting various small town demon worshippers.   After trying and failing to keep odd jobs to earn money due to his total non-understanding of human society, he encountered some teenagers who were being manipulated by a demon.  Driving the demon off by sheer reputation alone, Necker was nevertheless saved by the actions of one of the would-be worshippers after a series of embarrasing botches left him at the mercy of the others.  Taking his rescuer on as a student and befriending one of the demon's hell hounds who he named Anubis, Necker left with his two new friends in tow, though his apprentice eventually wandered off to experience the world after Necker's initial teachings.

Next, a mysterious message left by a Man in Black led Necker to a training camp for Akashic barrabi.  After an unfortunate botch using magic to tell the time, Necker arrived to late for their monthly Demon summoning, though vowing his next action would be to buy a watch.  Showing up next month with Alicia, Necker killed his way into the Chantry and met the Demon.  Nearly destroying it as well, Necker stopped when it offered to teach Necker of evil 'so that he may better fight it'.  Necker agreed and opened his mind to the creature.  He was flooded with thoughts of evil and carnage and when he left, the demon had taught him Nephandi Lore as well as their secret language Dragon's Tongue.  Alicia left and Necker stayed behind, building a 'bone' garden with the remains of the Akashics, making the Chantry into his personal Sanctum.

A week or so down the road Necker found a town full of Demon worshippers, some of whom had Infernal Investments to aid them.  Slaughtering the entire town, Necker found their Demon Abraxas, Lord of Mists.  Having heard of Necker's last Demonic encounter, Abraxas swore to serve Necker in exchange for Necker killing his enemies in Abraxas' name.  Necker, now well on the way to becoming a Nephandi, agreed and was granted immunity to all flames by the Demon Lord.

Following his Avatar, a crow, he was led to an ancient indian burial site of one of Necker's Avatar's past Mages.  This Mage was apparently a Nephandi who tortured and murdered before being killed by a large group of local Dreamspeakers.  Meeting an old guardian fae and then swimming across a lake of fire, Necker discovered not one, but two 'Avatars' at a huge infernal gate.  One wanted him to go through, the other could not make up its mind.  After botching magick to try to figure out if he should go through this portal or go back, Necker said 'Left heads. Right tails'. Pulled out a coin, flipped it, and when it landed tails he shot the run on the right with all the power he could muster, anihilating it.  I, as the player, rolled a die to determine right or left.  The GM was quite taken aback and just nodded when I asked if when Necker tried to sense using magic, it worked.  He and I both knew if it was Necker's Avatar that got shot so deep in the Umbra that Necker, with his power, might have destroyed it, thus Giguling himself.  I told him Necker knew, but that Necker trusts the fates.  So Necker turned and walked out, after his real Avatar squawked then fled.  Necker left his old self's home with nothing but his first permenant paradox flaw, that flame shines blue around him which is an ancient sign of a witch or one who cavorts with demons.

As a final note, technically the demon who taught Necker Dragon's Tongue shouldn't have been able to as only Nephandi can speak it.  However, seeing as one (and really most of) Necker's past lives were Nephandi, that technically makes Necker widderslainte.  Although future events later 'purified' Necker's avatar, leaving the truth even more in question.

Among Friends

Meeting up with Randy and Alicia again, the three went to the burial site of Necker's past self to rid it of the infernal.  Going deep into the Umbra there, they confronted the Demon Tiamat, who had been allied with several Mages that Necker's Avatar had belonged to in the past.   Along with Man in Black Wayne Warwick, the Demon was defeated.  Necker proved that even he could horrify a Demon when, after being disarmed by Tiamat, Necker used Magick to grow fangs and try to rip out Tiamat's throat without a second thought.  Necker also learned that Tiamat had captured the teenager he was training to use as a hostage.  But in the flurry of combat Necker forgot this until Tiamat was sent back to Hell.  In the end, Necker lost a leg which he easily grew back, and came into possession of the Sword of Nul.

Randy, Necker, Dirk Face, and a few others were then drawn to an old house and trapped into performing a bizarre parody of the Dungeons and Dragons TV show, with Necker playing the part of Bobby the Barbarian. Notable here was a scene where the Game Master tried to portray a sense of urgency to our plight by informing us there was no food to be found here. I and Dirk's player both looked at each other and then stared at another player saying in unison 'Oh yes there is.' As that other player was the Game Master's husband, we soon found food to avoid us eating his character.

After this, Randy and Necker encountered a musical band comprised of werewolves.   Learning that their leader accidently signed a contract to the Devil, the two decided to intervene.  The Devil wanted the werewolf to teach a sept of Black Spiral Dancers some ancient White Howler rituals he had discovered and the werewolf thought he had no options.  Randy and Necker decided to lay a trap at the teaching.  That way the band leader could fulfill his side of the deal, but the Black Spiral Dancers would be slain right afterwards.  The rest of the band geared up for the assault and when the teaching was done, they prepared to strike.  But before they could move, Randy and Necker opened fire. The werewolves got halfway into the fray when they saw a hail of bullets drop ten Black Spiral Dancers in a few seconds.  Diving for cover, the band looked horrified at the ease Randy Necker decimated an entire sept of Black Spiral Dancers.  One of their Theurges had invoked elemental powers to destroy the building and as all present ran out, Necker made it a point to be the last to leave and pause briefly to turn and look the Devil in the eye.  The Devil returned the glare and both parted company.

Making his way to Boston, Necker encountered a small Chantry that wanted he, Laura Davidson, Order of Hermes Master Edward Framingham, and gunslinging Akashic Brother Roland Gillead to join up.  The leader of the Chantry, a Cult of Ecstacy member named Thomas Rhymer and those gathered discovered their philosophies were to incompatible to join together.  Laura gave Necker a bible and then Framingham and Necker went to battle the Sabbat.  It was during this combat that Necker first revealed his 'Frenzy form'.  Being driven into Frenzy as he was still a Ghoul, Necker sprouted tentacles from his chest and back and proceed to eat the enemy Sabbat as Framingham fled the building in horror.  Only one Sabbat member escaped and brought back such tales of terror that the Sabbat Inquisition has hunted Necker ever since.  Necker finally left Boston after being blamed for the death of Thomas Rhymer.  This occured Necker went to confront Thomas about some matter and told Roland to make sure he didn't sneak out the back window.  Thomas tried, Roland fired a warning shot accidently hitting Thomas in the leg and Thomas fell, breaking his neck.

Contacted by Blackwell once more, Necker, Roland, and a Verbena named Hope met with him to broker a deal for a device reputed to nullify some of the effects of Paradox that Necker had taken from the bodies of one of his foes. Necker listened to the conversation devolve into ideological differences of how to best grow 'big wheat' and set the item on the table, leaving without bothering to check who took it in the end.

Randy, by now long since defected to the Technocracy after witnessing countless displays of stupidity by the Traditions and then being saved from Demons by a New World Order agent, summoned Necker to New York City to be remade into a cyborg.  Alicia caught wind of this and tried to intercede.  To do this she told Necker that he shouldn't accept these cybernetic enhancements since the Technocracy and the Traditions were enemies.  Necker, who was still amazingly ignorant regarding Mage society, had never heard the word 'Traditions' mentioned and asked who they were.  Alicia told him that both she and he were a part of them and that there were nine Traditions.  After Alicia could only list of seven of the nine, Necker decided that they were a disorganized bunch as one of their members couldn't even list them and chose to get cybered up, refusing only the brain implants offered.

Alicia stayed with Necker to investigate the freeing of the Dark Trinity.  Fek escaped, Gorgul, Lord of the Nexus Crawlers, fled after a pitched battle, and Necker defeated Raza, a direct agent of the Beast-of-War in personal combat.  As far as brute power goes, Necker was at his peak, though in the back of his mind the price of such power was beginning to weigh heavy on his conscience.

Out of the Ashes

Investigating a disturbance in space-time, Alicia and Necker were drawn through an 'Avatar Portal' along with a Void Engineer and a Celestial Chorister.  It reduced any who went through it to their component parts and then reassembled them elsewhere minus any items or unnatural additions to their bodies, possibly as a defense against weapon bearing intruders.  While the others were inconvenienced by lack of clothes and focii.  Necker was altered greatly.  His Infernal Investments, Cybernetic enhancements, weapons, armor, and even his Ghouled state were torn from him.  It was then the characters discovered they were in a realm where their magicks couldn't function, leaving Necker nothing but a normal human.

Necker and the others found they were in an world that resembled the future if the Technocracy won.  The Paradigm changed so that even the Void Engineer had difficulties using Devices, they drew attention when attempting Magick and soon both the Celesital Chorister and Alicia were apparently slain by inner demons which Necker defeated by accepting that he was not actually The Wyrm.  Necker then managed to attune himself to the local Magicks and discovered that the Technocracy was corrupted from within and was planning a horrible ritual to draw all creativity from the world.  Allying with Tremere, the last remaining vampire, Necker disrupted the ceremony and single handedly defeated his alternate self in combat.   Escaping through a tear in reality formed by the disrupted ritual along with a few from this twisted universe, one of whom slew the Void Engineer as they were sent through together, Necker found himself back in the real world, though still without any artificial additions he had previously.  In a strange city, without his car and hell hound, Necker was reborn, naked unto the world, bearing only a gem which stored countless points of Paradox in it which was later taken by Adrian Silber and put to use best not mentioned here.

Oblivion

Finding first clothes and then Anubis, now a house pet at a children's shelter in New York City where Laura Davidson was visiting, Necker was suddenly attacked by the house matron. After an incredibly pathetic attack on Necker's part, leaving the normal human only unconscious, Necker realized she had been possessed. A group of lesser demons had decided to inhabit humans and force them to attack Necker, leaving them when Necker slew them. Fleeing the growing number of people who were attacking him, Necker went back to where he parked his car only to find it stolen. After failing to use a church as a refuge, Necker leapt into the Umbra to confront the true menace and the demons fled quickly though in the confusion, Anubis was lost to Necker once more.

Unwilling to get Paradox again by leaving the Umbra, Necker transported himself back to his makeshift Sanctum. Preparing to return to New York in the real world, Necker suddenly felt a great presence approaching him and he entered the Umbra to confront it.  The creature Necker found offered him great power in exchange for service, which Necker adamantly refused.  Enraged, it tossed him Deep into the Umbra, hurtling towards Oblivion.  Taking the one way out he could sense, Necker found himself in an idyllic landscape along with a very annoying Mage named Marianna Ramchara.  The woman turned out to be a Dreamspeaker Chantry mate of Adrian Silber and called herself a Paradox Mage.  Ignoring her idiotic ramblings, Necker discovered that although there was everything here he needed to survive as well as endless beauty, there was also no way out. Deciding he could not properly serve Ascension here, he put his shotgun in his mouth and blew his head off. Apparently the GM was twisted and evil, for that was the only way out of the trap. Marianna then informed Necker he had Ascended and wandered off.

On the Road Again

Making his way through the Deep Umbra back to reality, Necker encountered a group of people who were deposited at his location : an elder Euthanatos Master of Entropy, an Akashic Brother, a newly trained Verbena and an Orphan with the Avatar of a great Euthanatos. During a quick briefing of the Orphan, Necker and the Akashic found they agreed on everything such as the Ascension War being a battle against the corruption and the Umbra being full of Hells, while the Verbena insisted the Ascension War was a war against the Technocracy and the Umbra was a beautiful place of wonder of splendor. After Necker discovered this was the Verbena's first time out of her Chantry's Horizon Realm and that she was stubbornly sticking to her teachings, he ignored her, assuming that the truth would attend to itself. Wandering a bit, they found themselves at the home of the Paradox Mages, the Horizon Realm of Bethel Chantry. Meeting Adrian Silber again, Necker was briefly dragged into the Realm of Horizon Chantry before being deposited in the desert near an obelisk at which Necker had visions of his past. According to these, Necker was originally a member of the Nakota tribe named Kenneth Raging Bull and had a younger brother. The flashes were so brief, however, Necker could gain little more information from them.

After being briefly pulled out of the real world to testify in front of several Oracles regarding Adrian Silber, Necker was returned to Earth and encountered an Orphan named Timothy Savage who accompanied him reluctantly as Necker followed a trail of death and multilation caused by a Nephandi of immense power. After locating the creature, Necker, who had by now been around long enough that he knew when to fight and when to flee, turned and ran, though he forced the Nephandi to leave the town it controlled since it had been discovered, though not before killing the remaining people it had under its thrall.

Parting company from Savage, Necker met a 900 year old Ventrue and a 'former' Malkavian named Leonard who now declared himself a Salubri. The Vampires were just returning from a bizarre adventure of their own and before the three could reach civilization, they met a young man who was being chased by the Nephandi that Necker had previously encountered as well as three of his fellows. Confronting the creatures, Necker and his companions were strung up on enchanted barbed wire. To Necker it was an exceptional focus, Leonard thanked the Nephandi, and the Ventrue scoffed. Using Magick, Necker discovered the mortal was brother to the first of these Nephandi he had encountered and that the man was to be slain to lessen the links his Nephandic brother had in the real world. Necker and the Malkavian managed to convince that Nephandi to desert his masters, which he eventually did though the other Nephandi swore revenge on all present.

Going to San Fransisco with the two Vampires, Necker was introduced to Kindred society. After only a short time, he sensed an Umbral disturbance and went to investigate. He found a Lasombra Methusulah in pitched combat with the Nephandic forces he had previously encountered. Helping drive them back, Necker and his new companion fled to the San Francisco mansion owned by the Ventrue he had previously met. The entire place was set up as a place for Kindred to worship Caine, but it soon became apparent that it was also a fattening pen run by a Malkavian of extreme power and age. This Vampire, however, informed Necker that Leonard was being trained to kill him and stop the slaughter so Necker assumed everyone had the situation well in hand. Necker then left after picking up the Malkavian's 'revised' version of the Book of Nod, from which he 'learned' about Vampiric origins. During his stay in San Francisco, Necker also spent a good deal of time with a Toreador who tried to explain the exhilirations of life to him. However, her ideas of excitement included actions like driving very fast which, compared to hurtling towards Oblivion, is fairly tame.

At one of the bars this Toreador took Necker to, he found an old man he recognized from flashbacks of his days with the Nakota tribe. This meeting brought back recollections of dancing around the fire with the spirits as a child. The man then told Necker that he was taken away by the government at a young age when his parents were herded off by the New World Order. Necker decided that if his parents let him play with spirits as a child they deserved to be taken away and has thought little more about this since.

Return to Oz

Returning to Oz to pick up more weapons and armor from Dr. Vulgar's storehouses, Necker decided to look for St. Darque. Spectacularly botching his Magick, Necker accidently sent out a beacon to the Beast-of-War which chose to manifest in Oz. The Umbral rifts caused by this brought an average NSA agent Fredrick Jenkins, Iteration X cyborg Dennis Roemer, a werelion, and Gangrel Sheriff of Washington D.C. Brad Smith into Oz as well where they were engaged in a bizarre parody of the Wizard of Oz against the Beast-of-War.

Fall of the Fallen

The last adventure ending with Necker drawing the manifestation of the Beast-of-War away from Oz, found him fleeing to an area his Magick told him might have the power to disrupt his adversary. That place turned out to be Doissetep. Edward Framingham, who happened to be there at the time attempted to get Necker driven off but a Euthanatos within intercepted the message and got Necker entry for the purpose of flushing out the Doissetep-Helekar conspiracy. Necker found Voormas preparing to gain energies from the Beast-of-War as it closed on Doissetep and, along with a eye-eating bat like familiar, slew the Friends of the Soul cabal and then Voormas himself in personal combat. Now-Archmage Framingham took care of the Beast-of-War problem and Porthos, who took a liking to Necker, stalled any Hermetic problems Necker might face long enough for him to wander off.  This battle had more repercussions than Necker realized however.  Decimating much of Doissetep and throwing the cabals into confusion, Necker paved the way for the current post Apocalyptic situation on Mars, this causing many white outs on the Digital Web.  Also the murder of perhaps the most feared Euthanatos, caused that Tradition to lose face, their guardian chantry of the Shade Realm of Entropy being lost as well.

Next Necker entered a Euthanatos Chantry to meet a Hermetic who was considering joining the Euthanatos but he determined the Mage was not strong enough to bear the burden of the Work. However, certain questions were raised concerning Necker's behaviour both past and present and it was decided there would be a trial in Calcutta where Necker's status as Euthanatos would finally be determined. While this was being prepared, Necker continued to wander the Earth, quite sure that when things were ready he would be summoned.

The Return of Dr. Vulgar

Heading eastward, Necker, now calling himself Nathanael in a vain attempt to be a bit more anonymous, encountered a Qualomi named Mallory and the two were soon contacted by none other than Jonathan Blackwell. Apparently there was a problem in one of Blackwell's installations that needed to be fixed. The kind of problem that one needs Necker to fix. It turned out the installation was one of Dr. Vulgar's bases where he was experimenting on life. In it the two found a creature with traits taken from several types of supernaturals which took the form of Dr. Vulgar. In the end, the creature escaped and the base self destructed.

Later, Necker and Mallory discovered Dr. Vulgar was not really dead, but just reduced to Quintessence. With some other Sons of Ether they reconstituted him, and then they and the Gangrel sheriff of Washington D.C. Brad Smith were dragged by the Sons to fight Nephandi on one of the moons of Jupiter, which was destroyed near the end of the conflict. Earlier, one of the Sons of Ether misidentified the moon as being named 'Ascension'. And Brad Smith fully understood what Necker meant when he gestured at the debris of the moon, saying "This is what happens when Sons of Ether encounter Ascension."

First Meets Last

When Brad told Necker that the First Nephandi had stolen his spear and that he was looking for Mages to help retrieve it, Necker agreed to travel with him to the First Nephandi's last known lair. Finding the area, they entered only to find a scene of pastoral beauty, quite unlike the dark gothic halls that greeted Brad when he last visited. Finding the First Nephandi, Necker and Brad reluctantly struck a deal to assault a demon in exchange for the spear. Finding the creature's servants preparing the neccesary sacrifices to summon it, they interupted the ritual forcing the worshippers to sacrifice themselves to complete it. As Brad attempted to stop this, Necker, sensing the approach of the demon, leapt into the Umbra to face it, shotgun raised. Moments before it struck, something, presumably the First Nephandi, blindsided it, ripping it away somewhere to its demise. Brad got his spear back as per the bargain and the First Nephandi disposed of a possible threat to his power. Necker believed this to be more of an aid to him, however, as it meant one less foe to fight during the Apocalypse. Only time will tell whether he or the First Nephandi profitted more from their deal.

I Love New York

After informing Dr. Vulgar that it doesn't matter whether either of them were Mages or Mauraders as long as they did their jobs, Necker went to New York City to meet Leonard and his new companions at Christmastime, Necker was paired with an amnesiac HIT Mark who Leonard was trying to teach to be non-violent and harmonious with all others. Necker immediately armed him to the teeth and assured him killing was for the best, causing Leonard to burst into tears. Next they went to meet the four Nephandi they had faught previously to help them break from their Demon master, presumably to redeem themselves. Needless to say, Necker and they soon started brawling, which was stopped when both sides agreed the Demon master was the top priority. The battle destroyed all of Necker's belongings save his sword, leaving him naked on a rooftop in New York City with Nephandi and Malkavians on Christmas Eve. Leonard's player said Leonard got an erection from this. I, wisely, did not ask.

Flight of the Butterfly

Leaving the Nephandi and Malkavian troupe to plan for themselves, Necker once again found clothes and then headed off to search for his car. Seeing a crow flying over the head of a woman in black wandering down the sidewalk, Necker choose to follow her. After all, the crow might be his Avatar. She realized she was being followed and ducked into an alley, preparing an ambush. Catching Necker totally offguard, she pointed the weapon at his head and fired ... missing. Necker turned calmly around as she pulled the trigger again. The gun jammed. She and Necker both looked at her weapon. She apologized for doing such a horrible job killing him, assuring Necker she was usually alot better. Since then they've gotten along fabulously. Learning her name was 'Buffy' and that she was assigned by the FBI to go discover information on Vampires, Necker decided to assist her. The first Sabbat pack she tried to interview became quickly violent at which point Necker was forced to roust them soundly armed only with a trumpet case. The one left standing was very cooperative from that point on until he was slain by a high ranking Malkavian Antitribu for revealing Sabbat secrets to outsiders.

Soon after, Buffy began to be harrassed by Men in Black which resulted in a dozen or so being killed by both some unexplained occurances as well as Necker. The unexplained deaths were later revealed to be the work of David Duchovich who planned this out to Awaken Buffy so he could demand a favor from her in the future. After erasing all record of her from the nation's computer banks and gifting Necker with his old car, minus much of its contents including Jim Moore who had apparently been diablorized sometime back, Duchovich vanished off to parts unknown.

Necker agreed to be Buffy's Mentor and Buffy, in turn, told him of her belief that the use of foci limits the growth of reality, an idea which she said many Mages took great offense too. Necker, on the other hand, agreed and has not used any foci since. Buffy, who was also Wendigo Kinfolk, went back to being called Butterfly, a name she had used in the past. She then took Necker around to her friends who included a Get of Fenris in training, a family of Glasswalkers, and finally her Wendigo family. Necker, having a hard time with lack of foci use which disabled his use of Mind Magicks, went to the Uktena's practitioner of lucid dreaming in order to best control the nightmares that plagued him after all these years of using Magick to avoid true sleep. While with him, a rip opened in the Umbra and Necker's student, the boy who saved Necker from the Demon worshippers at the beginning of his Road Trip, suddenly burst out of the Deep Umbra explaining he had learned the lessons Necker desired him to learn.

Shadow Play

Leaving the boy to recuperate after his ordeal, Necker was called by the Uktena to investigate an attack upon their caern by evil spirits after which they found an Indonesian Shadow Puppet whose image greatly resembled Necker.  After meeting with Brad Smith of Washington D.C. in his Prince's chambers, with Prince Vitel himself in attendance, Necker and Brad returned to the caern and entered the Umbra with a fetish given to them by a mysterious man they met who claimed to wish to aid them. Using it, they travelled to the general source of the attack and found a chantry of Dreamspeakers who were gathering a force to fight the evil spirits that dwelt nearby.  Though most of those they gathered claimed to prefer to protect the chantry, Necker decided they were all cowards and went to fight the spirits with Brad, Brad's Nosferatu companion Farqwart, and Siana a novice Dreamspeaker.

After fighting more Shadow Demons, they found a village captured by the forces of evil and Brad took on the main Demon that guarded it.  Meanwhile Necker discovered a bridge of souls that was part of a ritual to allow Hell to come to Earth and after much urging from Farqwart, Necker shattered the bridge with his Zakium blade causing the souls to merge with it for lack of a nearer place to bind themselves too.  Brad destroyed the corporeal form of the demon, Necker ended up with a small statue carved of werewolf flesh that was used for the ritual,  and then they all went their seperate ways.

Dragonheart

Divining a next move, Necker choose to go to Japan, a land he found quite enjoyable with its tube 'hotel rooms' and its revolving sushi bars.  Arriving, he wandered a bit until he found an oriental vampire.  This Kuei-jin was an Ancestor that ran a thriving Club in Tokyo and Necker presented himself to her as if she were a Prince, though she explained that was a Western concept.  Necker promised to try to stay out of trouble and left.  Soon after Necker was involved with a gang war between Kuei-jin and Kin-jin that caused a Dragon spirit to manifest and drain the essence from one of the vampires.  Two gunfights later and there were dozens of demons killed within 24 hrs of Necker's promise to stay out of trouble.

Introducing himself to a Zhong Yung who had not yet had her first change, Necker and later a Khan named John Bryce began teaching this weredragon, named Natti, the ways of shifters.  Which could be boiled down to 'eat other supernaturals'.  Soon after this Necker was handed a note by a mysterious boy upon which were written several names. Necker deduced these to be those in danger of an attack by Shadow Demons and began to contact them all.  Among these names were Natti, Brad Smith, Prince Vitel, Oliver Thrace, and Osaki, a Tokyo gang leading Kuei-jin.

While Natti was away at school, Necker wandered Toyko.  He eventually stumbled upon a battle between a wererat stealing files concerning a mass murder of Hengeyokai by Strike Force Zero and members of the Strike Force.  Unsuccessfully attempting to avoid confrontation, Necker managed to introduce himself to them all and then split up the fight, though gaining possession of the files.

Going to a library to research these files (With Natti of course since Necker still could not read Japanese) Necker stumbled across a woman who seemed 'familiar' to him and who claimed to be his sister, though she was apparently a Mage suffering from Quiet.

After this, Necker discovered Frank James' name had been mysteriously added to his list of persons due to be attacked by demons and he went looking for him.  Running across him during his visit to Tokyo, Necker briefed James on what was going on and they decided to go question Thrace again, though Necker had spoken to him once and gotten no real aid.

Monkey See, Monkey Do

One the way to Thrace, a mysterious mist rose up from nowhere.  As it parted, Necker found himself in front of a huge gate and faced with a monkey with a key on its tail.  It said it was Hanuman, the Monkey King and then pointed Necker towards some evil.  When Necker returned to Earth, he found himself briefly with Natti and his 'sister' and then was whisked away again, finding himself in the second Age where the Goddess of Destiny told him he was chosen by Hanuman to be taught many things, including the fact that Mages aren't like other supernaturals since they were not created by the August Personage of Jade for a specific task.  He also learned that he is an incarnation of Yi the Excellent Archer who had a bow that could destroy suns.  Yi was one of the few non-corrupt past lives of Necker's avatar primarily because when he was active corruption was just beginning.  A final important lesson Necker learned here was that the only true weapon is one which can not be misused.  Necker is still trying to figure out what that means. Upon returning to Earth he found himself with Frank James and discovered that Natti had destroyed Thrace's Chantry but was stopped from eating him by the Ancestor Necker had met earlier.  James and Necker retrieved Natti and learned Thrace was a broken pawn of the oriental vampires.  As Necker and James left the Ancestor's club, James saw Hanuman laughing, Necker of course, missing not only the joke but the laughing monkey as well.

Fight the Future

So where does this all leave Necker? The House of Helekar either wants to revere him or kill him after what he did to Voormas. The Traditions have just realized how dangerous he can be and believe that taking political action can help solve the 'Necker' problem. He is hunted by the Sabbat Inquisition and watched by everyone from Porthos to the First Nephandi. The rest of the Nephandi as well as most other creatures of unspeakable evil feel something akin to professional jealousy towards him.

Necker's current plans are to balance his Yin and Yang, find the bow of Yi, and lead the group of followers of Yi which exist even to this day.