Hermit

//This is part of the Hangover city, Liverpool, uk setting//

=Hermit - Independent Sorcerer (Probably)=

The hermit is not his name, it is just what other people call him. Around six foot but painfully thin, his is dressed in a long woollen coat that may once have been brown but is now a collection of stains. As it is permanently buttoned up, even under the hottest of days, no one knows what is underneath (and some say we are better for the ignorance) Some how he remains clean shaven, and his hair, though long, manages to be untangled and straight. It too is best described as ‘brown with stains’. He lives in the Grotto in Sefton park. He did briefly move onto the island in the middle of the lake when the council renovated the Grotto as part of the city of culture celebrations, but has since moved back. He spends his day in the park apparently talking to the rocks and trees, and occasionally the statues. Mortals assume he is a ‘Care in the Community” Case and give him a wide berth. He can be persuaded to talk to non mortals who bring him a gift. The gift can take many forms but his favourite is a fact he does not already know.

He has become the Oracle of Liverpool. Those with a puzzle no one else can solve bring it to him, and whilst they may not always get an answer to their puzzle directly, the insights he shares are always accurate and relevant to the questioner. Only once has any one got any information out of the Hermit about himself. Fidel gave up some fact that was of such value the Hermit was willing to trade a hint about his own nature to the young wizard. However what he said seemed almost to strange to be believed true even by the Hermit himself. He told Fidel that his guidance and insights came from the fact that he was a character in a series of books, and that he had already read them all. Unfortunately the books did not contain all the actions of all the people who approached him, so some times he could only reveal other relevant and useful titbits that he had gleaned from other parts in the story, and from the information other people have ‘paid’ him with.

Essentially the Hermit is included as a GM Fiat for days when the players are suffering from an attack of ‘hard of thinking’. He can be used to push them in a direction, but if they come to rely in him to much he will start demanding more interesting payment (revelation of Aspects that could be used by others against them for example) or provide them with interesting but fundamentally irrelevant stuff.