icolai Demodocus Ferguson

Odain Alias: Nicolai

Homeworld: Earth (mainline historical continuity, circa 1971)

Player: Ben-San Arizona

Appearance:

Nicolai is a 21-year-old Caucasian American of Slovak extraction with wild, curly black hair, dark brown eyes, and glasses. He was pulled into Odain wearing black slacks, a white button-fronted shirt, and a beige vest which is usually unbuttoned. He wears a silver-looking (but not real silver) ankh on a fine chain around his neck and carries a doctor's bag with various sacred, scientific and mystical symbols painted onto it. A ring on his left hand is set with an garnet, and his belt buckle is embossed with the symbol of Aquarius.

Powers: None beyond those typically associated with a 21-year-old human male.

Weaknesses: None beyond those typically associated with a 21-year-old human male.

Skills:

He's a junior at U. Penn: Philadelphia, majoring in Philosophy and minoring in Psychology, and has the skills that this entails. Additionally, he's somewhat knowledgeable in and practices a huge variety of "metaphysical" methods and practices from crystal waves to orgone to Tarot to transcendental meditations. None of these are genuine magic in his world, although the rules of other worlds may be different. In particular, his knowledge of Tarot and astrology are especially in-depth; Tarot is what got him onto his metaphysical kick in the first place.

Equipment: In addition to his clothes, he has the following:

• Welzmann Orgone Accumulator: This is a piece of junk.. sort of. All it is is a "capacitor" built of layers of cotton fiber, aluminum, and sterling silver with some extra wires and knobs attached. Supposedly it will accumulate the orgone generated by living things, which will in turn power magic or just make the owner happy and healthy. Unfortunately, there's no such thing as orgone native to his world. However, in a world where such things exist, the Accumulator will, in fact, block ch'i or orgone flows in such a way as to build up power in the cotton fibers, which can then be discharged by bringing the leads into a circuit. Unfortunately, Nicolai's knowledge of how to create such a circuit is sketchy at best, and generally involves laying out his Tarot cards in particular ways, possibly with various appropriate astrological symbols, and hoping for the best.

• Tarot Cards: A normal Rider-Waite Tarot deck.

• Astrolabe: An antique brass astrolabe acquired while visiting relatives in upstate New York.

• Dice, Norse Rune Stones: Normal representatives of their type. The dice are black with white pips; the runestones are blue glass with black paint.

• First Aid Kit: Not a normal part of his accoutrements, but he decided that he should probably carry it for his voyage into the collective unconscious.

• Doctor's Bag: Used to carry all of the above, except the Accumulator, which is rather too bulky. Painted on it in various places and colors are a cross, an ankh, an Om, a circle, a musical note, a Star of David, a Tree of Life, a Norse ask-rune, and a variety of other such symbols. Much of the paint is peeling. The unpainted spots are black.

Personality:

Nicolai is a nice enough fellow, if rather intense. He believes in conspiracies, but more of the sort used by The Establishment to oppress alternative sciences that challenge its power base than of the sort that involves assassinations, Freemasons, and black ops. He firmly believes that science and philosophy ought to be interchangeable, and is delighted that his first serious experiment seems to have proved him somewhat correct. He rarely combs his hair.

Backstory:

For lead-in research to his senior thesis, Nicolai decided that he would take a voyage into the collective unconscious, turning down an offer of hallucinogens from his roommate in favor of a combination of autohypnosis, orgone channeling, and the Tarot. While in his autohypnotic state, he was "acquired" by one of Odain's tendrils.