Lords of the Night - Stephen Argent written by Kit Thornton

Stephen Argent, J.D., PhD (Written by Kit Thornton)

Stephen Argent was born on 29 Febraury, 1945. He never knew his mother. His Father was a faith healing, tent-reviving, bible-beating dynamo of a man, utterly committed to his "ministry," and deeply convinced that something was wrong with his only son, Stephen. Despite the fact that the good Reverend punished every infraction against the law of God, the boy seemed strangely unmoved by his preaching, and even the frequent "corrections in love" made upon the boy's body with a leather strap did not bring tears to the boy's dark eyes. One day in his eighth year, as Stephen stood straight and still as the blood of a fresh strapping trickled down his legs, his Father asked the most meaningful question of his life, "Why are you like this...why?"

"Because I have seen what stands behind you when you speak, and I know that it will take you soon."

His father disappeared a few days later. Not only in body, but in essence. No one knew, it seemed, that Reverend Argent had ever existed. The state child welfare officials found no evidence of his existence, no body, no records, no rumors, no friends to veryify that the man Stephen claimed as his father ever walked the earth. People that Stephen remembered having attended his father's sermons simply seemed to have had all memory of his existence expunged from their minds. No one remembered him but Stephen, and Stephen felt nothing for him.

Stephen never reported having seen anything like he had seen standing behind his father at the pulpit. The welfare officials seemed puzzled and shaken by Stephen. He seemed very alert, but emotionally unreachable. His intellect and maturity were formidible, frightening the child psychiatrists sent to evaluate him. They puzzled over the boy's extensive knowledge of politics and poetry, and his odd knack for improvising machines from common objects. Once, from the component parts of a transistor radio he created a machine to neutralize the facility's electronic alarms, and unlock its magnetic doors. He escaped from the children's home three times, only to return within a week with money, new clothes, and a few books. Only the books seemed to matter to him, and the only way to provoke an emotional reponse from him was to attempt to remove them.

The books themselves seemed unremarkable, except for their advanced subject matter. Darwin, Marx, Nietzsche, Calculus, Organic Chemistry, Military History, William Reich, Cryptography, Chess Problems, Theology, Anthropology, and every other esoteric subject found their way into the Stephen's locker. The other kids occasionally chided him for his bookishness. He ignored them. One hefty schoolyard bully even made the mistake of kicking Stephen and grabbing his book while he read quietly during a recreation period. Stephen stuck a pencil through the boy's eye, and went back to his reading, seemingly undisturbed by the blinded boy's screams. When Stephen returned from isolation, no one troubled him...or his books.

Because if his frequent escapes, Stephen was sent to facilities that were more and more secure. He escaped them regardless. While he was there, he learned things from prisoners about life outside the system. After returning from an extended absence during his twelveth year, he suddenly devoted himself to his academic work, far outstripping the facilities of the juvenile center. When he submitted an essay to a ninth grade English teacher entitled "Kabbalist Thought and the Nietzschean Ubermench," his teacher began agitating the administration for a placement with a family and an advanced academic program.

Eventually, Stephen was placed in a foster home run by a Jesuit priest named Father Christopher Kelly. Father Kelly had heard of the boy and his esoteric interests. His library, even the parts that would have cost him his tonsure had the Archbishop known about them, seemed the perfect place for such a boy.

Stephen read voraciously, learning Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and diving headlong into any ancient text that his young hands fell upon. Father Kelly soon took Stephen out of regular classes and simply spoke with him once a week about his reading, guiding him. By Stephen's eighteenth birthday, it was Father Kelly who was asking for insight.

At fourteen years of age, the second great tradgedy of his life befell Stephen. For reasons unknown to Stephen, three men dressed in black military fatigues burst into Father Kelly's office, and shot Father Kelly multiple times while Stephen watched helplessly. Father Kelly lived long enough only to give Stephen his crucifix, his rosary, his fountain pen, his watch, and a parting word of advice, "Seek ye first the Kingdom, my son, and all these things will be added unto you. Ave, Atque, Vale." Then with his bloodied fingers, he made the sign of the cross on Stephen's head, and passed on to his reward. Since that day, he has hated guns, and will not touch them unless the need is dire. Stephen can still feel the sign of the cross on his forehead. Occasionally, it bleeds blood that is not his.

Everyone was stunned by the estate that Good Father Kelly left behind him. Most of the suprising (and to some, suspicious) wealth that he had acquired he left to various Catholic causes, including the foster home, but his cottage, and his antique book collection he left to Stephen Argent, along with a small yearly stipend.

On the strength of a record-setting admissions test and Father Kelly and the Archbishop's letter of recommendation, Stephen left for Notre Dame University. He excelled there, and remained through his Doctoral program, finishing his entire course from Bachelor to Doctorate in six years. Only Twenty years old, and with a quickly buiding academic reputation that ranged from Metaphysics through Ancient Languages, Dr. Argent was much in demand. His dissertation "The Influence of Medieval Occultism on Modern Psychological and Metaphysical Thought" is not widely known in public circles, but in academic circles it is the center of considerable controversy. His thesis was that medern psychology grows from the influence of Kabbalistic thought on Viennese scholars of the Nineteenth century. Essentially, "Alchemy is the father of Psychology and Metaphysics, as well as Chemistry."

Suddenly, however, on the threshold of a successful academic career, Dr. Argent left Notre Dame without explanation or notice and began a seven-year period of wandering. He traveled wherever there were rumors of knowledge not commonly shared by men, often working his passage. He resided in Nepal for a year and studied under a famous Lama, served the temple in Benares under the ancient monks, and sat the fire service in Burkina Faso with Toola-ah tribesmen. Driven by his hunger to know and experience, he served a novitiate with the Orthodox Monks on Mt. Atlas. He studied with a little known order of Spanish schismatic gnostic monks that lived in a cave in Scalamanca. Finally, he returned to Notre Dame and Father Kelly's Cottage, shut the door, and did not emerge for one year.

Unfortunately, the world did not leave Stephen Argent to his solitude. Rumors spread about him, and eventually these rumors came to the attention of an officer in the National Security Agency. The agent, intrigued by the report of a young hermit who had traveled the world and spoke to no one, decided to do a background check on Dr. Argent, to see if he had any questionable associates. After all, this was 1972, the height of the cold war, and people with foreign contacts were to be watched.

What the agent found alarmed him. There was no record of Dr. Stepehen Argent's parenting, or of his schooling before he went to Notre Dame. His teacher at the secondary school lever, a Father Kelly, had been killed by an unknown terrorist action. Clearly, this was someone to be followed up on, and soon.

Contact was made, indirectly, with the strange professor. The agent assigned to interview him, under cover as a visiting scholar interested in Dr. Argent's Metaphysical writings, returned to his control agent barely able to express his surprise. "Argent's dangerous...I don't know how...but he is. He knew why I was there within five minutes. He answered all my questions, and somehow...he made me answer his. Its not like he's magic, or psychic, or anything. He just knows...And its scary as hell."

The control agent chalked the agent's report up to overwork and an overactive imagination, but his curiosity grew. He decided on a bold, and very unusual plan. He walked up to the cottage knocked on the door, and when Dr. Argent answered it, he said, "I'm Dale McGuire, and I work for the NSA. We want to know if you are a danger to the United States."

"No."

"Uhm...yes...thank you. McGuire stammered. "Were you associated with any Communist or Subversive groups while you were overseas?"

"Subversive to your illusion, yes. Communist? No."

"What do you mean by illusion?"

"Come in, Mr. McGuire. But don't fault me if I answer your question completely. And leave your gun on the table. You may shoot yourself otherwise." Argent smiled an open, disturbing smile.

McGuire talked to Dr. Argent that day, and many other days. It changed him. But it also changed Argent. Argent soon came to the "Puzzle Palace," the NSA's ultra-high security headquarters to help with the translation of an ancient cypher, or to issue reports on strange, esoteric groups operating in distant corners of the world. Before long, Argent was in the field, visiting the strangest people and reporting on phenomena that did not fit neatly into the predictable intellegence report worldview. The involvement fed two needs in Argent; his insatiable desire to know, and his unresolved need for a place in society, a feeling of belonging. He gave good service, and was ruthless in his drive to acquire information, and make it his own. Even the loss of his kneecaps to the bullets of a Salvadoran Death Squad did not deter him, although thereafter he could barely walk without the aid of a cane.

Suddenly, his service was over. For reasons unclear to Argent, McGuire suddenly dissapeared, Argent's credentials were revoked, and he narrowly escaped several carefully tailored accidents. Disillusioned, he sought a new area of knowledge that would allow him to protect himself from the unfairness he percieved around him.

The admissions staff at the Georgetown Law Center were startled in the extreme by the unusual application that landed on their desks that winter. A former professor at Notre Dame had applied for admission to Law School. His academic credentials were amazing, and his score on the Law School Admissions Test was near perfect. In addition, he was disabled and fit the school's affirmative action program. They admitted him.

Three years later, Dr. Stephen Argent graduated at the top of his class. Law Schools and Academic institutions engaged in a bidding war for his services, but he chose a teaching position at the unprestigious, but solid Port Davis University on the Texas Gulf Coast, teaching law, mathematics and philosophy. He occasionally takes a case to court that he is interesed in due to legal issues or civil liberties concerns. He is something of an enigma to his students, but has the reputation of being a brilliant, engaging teacher with absolutely no tolerance for slipshod effort. After classes, he keeps to himself, writes books that he releases to no one, and studies incessantly. He has recently applied for, and been granted a one-year sabbatical to study in Mexico City, preparing an academic work about the complex relationship between Aztec government and religious observance. He has learned Spanish, and prepared carefully by study and by several short trips into Mexico beforehand.

IN GAME TERMS:

Appearance: Dr. Stephen Argent is a somewhat short, stocky man with a grey van dyke beard and mustache. He is neatly dressed with an eye towards practicality. He walks with a cane, and occasionally smokes cigars. He is seldom without Father Kelly's pocketwatch, fountain pen, crucifix and rosary hidden deep in an inside pocket.

Advantages: Very fast reader, Heedless of physical harm, Very tough to rattle or frighten, Language Ability, Genius Intellect

Disadvantages: Strongly dislikes firearms, enemies in U.S. Government, Disabled, Age (55), Prejudice against evangelicals, Compulsion to protect children, Unable to form human attachments, Must keep Father Kelly's crucifix on him or suffer debilitating nightmares. When powerfully stressed, a cross of blood will appear on his forehead. Utterly amoral and unsentimental about the acquisition of knowledge. Abused childhood. Compulsive bibliophile. Early contact with occult phenomenon.

Skills: Law, Metaphysics, Mathematics, Religion, Occult, Interrogation, Physical Interrogation, Instruction, Oratory, Debate, Library Use, Persuasive and Academic Writing, Ancient Languages, Latin, Greek, Conversational Spanish, Dhas-Ahrma (An esoteric Tibetan martial art/spiritual excercise), Cane Fighting, Gadgeteering

Personality: Dr. Argent is disquieting to many people. He is reserved and polite, and smiles frequently, but he is a constant and keen observer of humanity. His insight into human desire, and his eerie lack of those same desires seem to unbalance those around him. He speaks little in most circumstances, unless he percieves that the person he is confronted with is in possession of worthwhile knowledge. Then his eyes will gleam and he will wring the knowledge out of the other at the first opportunity. He MUST know. In return he will give very little about himself or his past, very aware of the enemies behind him.