Johan, Dearest of all my friends

> Only one thing is certain. I know it. Every now and then, at the top of an electric pylon, in the midst of a snowy landscape, against a cold, biting wind, Dino Giuffré stops; melancholy assails him, and he then start to think. And he thinks that I, Titta di Girolamo, am his best friend
>
> Titta di Girolamo, The Consequences of Love by Paolo Sorrentino

Johan is a handsome guy who looks in his mid-twenties, early thirties. When the Agents meet him for the first time, he will have the credential that better fit the current investigation.

Johan is the worst kind of toxic friend, the one you care for. He loves his friends, but his love is destructive to the ones around him. Johan will make sure he knows the academic skill most useful for the current investigation. He is “open minded” about the unnatural and has a magnetic albeit reserved personality. If the “clue” he is supposed to analyze is of unnatural origin, he will comment about it. If lied or gaslighted, he will question the Agents. He genuinely wants to help and will try to join the current operation.

If the Agents let him in the operation, he will start creating a DG-bond with them (activated according to the rules at the most fitting time) at full CHA. This bond is **reciprocal**: for every Agent that forms a bond with Johan, he will form a bond with them. Being a  DG-Bond, the **relationship with Johan does not go down if ignored during home scenes**.

When Johan is not present, any Agent who has a bond with him can spend **1WP** and **1BOND** with him to either:

* get a +20% to the academic skill Johan is an expert in
* reroll any academic skill (*“What would Johan do?”*).

The bond cannot be reduced below **CHA/2** this way.

Johan is a bad influence for the Agents, his mere presence is enough to push them to indulge in their most self-destructive desire/vice. If a player has an addiction or problematic behavior (cheating, gambling…), Johan **might** push them into fulfilling it during their downtime together *(“oh come on, you deserve that cold beer. Here, on me.”*). **Resisting** the temptation will cost **1/1d4 SAN from helplessness** (that cannot be projected on Johan). **Indulging** during a night out will **strengthen the bond with Johan**. [see **Toxic Friendship** for details]

If an Agent saves Johan life, he will be forever grateful… the Johan way:

* If the Agent risks losing their job, the one in charge of the investigation will be either doxed for a terrible crime (that they *probably* did not commit) or die in a suspect incident and the investigation will be closed. No clue will point to the Agent, but rumors will start spreading.
* If the Agent or someone in their family needs a transplant, a victim of brutal assault (with a matching organ) will be found brain dead near the hospital closest to the Agent. The victim is an organ donor, the Agent/family member is on the top of the transplant list (matching/distance).
* If someone is in the way of the Agent promotion, something terrible will happen to that person.

No solid evidence will point in Johan direction, but any “helpful” occurrence will cross the line of decency and humanity in some way. If the Agent will bring up his suspicions to Johan, they will be met with a warm smile and no deny triggering a **1/1d4SAN from helplessness** and increasing the bond with Johan by 1d4BOND. (**Note: this is meant to represent subconsciously accepting the truth about Johan, but still being in denial about what our “friend” did.)**

The toxicity of Johan will slowly affect the private life of the Agents he bonded with. Agents can try to reduce the bond with him by **projecting on him** or by catching him in the act of killing/hurting innocent people to “help” the Agent (**1/1d4SAN from helplessness** and **-1d4BOND**). When the bond of the Agent with Johan reaches 0, they  will be able to confront him and get rid of him once and for all.

No matter how his actions affect the Agents’ sanity and personal life, Johan genuinely **loves** his “friends”: if Johan still has a current bond with someone, he will **never** try to hurt them directly or force them to commit a crime [ see **I can make it stop**]. Moreover, any former bond of his is **allowed a POW contest** to resist his manipulation. This does not mean that Johan will never try to use the Agents to further his goals, on the contrary. However, he will do it the old-fashioned way: with half-truths and persuasion.

If any Agent reaches **0SAN** while they still have a bond with Johan, they will become obsessed with him and they will be forever entangled in his toxic friendship becoming a **True Friend [**see **True Friend**]. A True Friend will do everything in their power to protect Johan from harm, even if it means going against Johan’s desires. If the True Friend’s actions lead to the death of one of Johan’s current “friends”, the relationship between the two get strained (reduce Johan’s bond with the true friend by **-1d4BOND** ). Johan loves his True Friends and will only act against them or try to get rid of them when his side of the bond reaches 0.

## The True Johan

> “One day, the boy came upon the monster who had gone west.
>
>
> "I have a name. It's a wonderful name," said the boy.
> The monster who went west replied, "You don't need a name. You can be happy without a name. Because we are nameless monsters."
> The boy ate the monster who went west. Even though he had finally found a name, there was no one left to call him by it.
>
>
>
> What a wonderful name it was, Johan...”
>
> Obluda by Franz Bonaparta

**Note: This section is not supposed to give a complete record of Johan’s life, but only to introduce the character and give the Handler a roadmap to follow if they want to unveil the mystery behind Johan.**  **The bolded texts between brackets in the following section are meant as possible clues to “connect” the different sections of Johan life. The important elements are:**

1. **He always keeps the name Johan, but his last name might change**
2. **He doesn’t leave behind any clear picture or recording of himself when he disappears (if the Agents manage to take a clear picture, they can use it to interrogate people, they will remember him… It is not a supernatural cleansing: he’s just incredibly good at hiding his tracks and manipulating people)**
3. **He always leaves behind something connected to his name before disappearing (a quote from an author with the same name, a painting of Johan the Baptist, a song of Johan Sebastian Bach playing in loop in someone’s apartment, …). His name is the only thing that proves he ever existed in this world…well, his name and his friends.**

Johan was born in the Serbian part of the former Yugoslavia (SFRY) between ‘89-’92. He grew up in a state orphanage (сиротиште543) near the border of the semi- independent region of Kosovo.  Doctor Grigory Rodchenkov, a party psychiatrist, oversaw the facility. The real goal of the orphanage was to make the offspring of the rebels and political dissidents into the “perfect leader of the party”. When Serbia joined the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1992, he continued his experiment under Milosevic, funneling party funds into his project.

In the facility, the children were properly fed and kept physically healthy, but what the doctor was doing to their mind damaged them irreparably. Extreme measures like forced insolation, physical punishment, brain washing, and sensory deprivation were used to educate and mold them into Rodchenkov’s ideal. Many broke down, some survived by repressing these experiences, few thrived. Of these few, Johan was Rodchenkov’s masterpiece.

Johan was the perfect politician: people were ready to die for him, he was able to easily manipulate his peers and bring them to their side. He had an innate ability for learning, and he was able to master in a few months what took other people years. This was not enough for Rodchenkov. He didn’t want a “great leader”, he wanted the “perfect leader”.

The doctor pushed his research to the limit of human comprehension, crossing into something that humans were not supposed to see. Using Serbian and Russian occult research and kabbalistic texts, he managed to open a window into a  dimension of pure knowledge and to apply this knowledge to Johan’s education.

For a couple of years, the cutting edge brain and unnatural meddling seemed to give the desired results: Johan was becoming the perfect leader, Johan knew how to control people, Johan could pick up any discipline with the same ease normal people breathe, Johan was exceptional, but…

… Johan was lonely, and bored, and a kid.

In **March 1999**, a few days before the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia, a fire burns down the orphanage. Of the 130 kids in the facility only 127 bodies are found. All hospital records are lost in the fire. The body of Dr. Rodchenkov is found in his bathtub, the wrists open. A piece of paper loaded in his typewriter; it reads:

> “везе пријатељства су много јаче од крви или родбине, јер пријатељи које имамо су они које бирамо сами за себе и родбину, они су они које нам даје судбина”
>
>

**[Language(Serbian/Russian)]**

> “friendship ties are much stronger than blood or relatives, because the friends we have are the ones we choose for ourselves and our relatives, they are the ones that fate gives us”
>
>

**[Art(Literature) /History at 40% or Language(Serbian) at 60% to know it is the Serbian translation of the “Decameron” by Johann Boccaccio (russification of foreign authors name) ]**

In **July 2000**, Herr Starr, the German Ambassador for the Embassy of Podgorica, Montenegro, comes home to Berlin. He has a kid of around 7-10yrs with him, his new son. Starr pulled some diplomatic strings and managed to fast track the adoption. His name? Johan!

[**Bureaucracy 60% or a roll at -20% will point to a specific Serbian orphanage at the border with Montenegro. Some of the documents related to Johan and his adoption are redacted. In his file, three names are highlighted: Roberto (missing), Johan (Herr Starr),  Wolfgang(** **РДБ / RDB). Next to those 3 names a handwritten note by the director: “сиротиште543”]**

In **February 2001** Herr Starr moves to New York with his American wife, Elena, and Johan. The couple dies in a tragic “fire accident” few days after 9/11. No network covers the news. The body of their kid is never found. The NGOs that were working with Herr Stark and his wife strongly suspect that the couple was stealing money: several millions disappeared in shady transactions, the evidence points to the Starrs, but the money is never found.

**[Elena’s sister has spent years looking for Johan, she never lost hope. The CMC got involved but the investigation went nowhere. To make everything harder, the police could not find any clear picture or recording of the kid]**

**October 2009**, Pennsylvania. Dylan Meeks, a student at Monroe High, puts pesticide in the cafeteria food killing 13 students (Meeks included). Meeks was an avid online gamer and, by modern standard, an incel. He leaves behind a manifesto about how society treats young men like him as disposable, blaming society and lookism. Politicians blame the act on the internet and violent video games. The FBI finds the log of an ICQ chat on his computer, the other side of the conversation deleted remotely. The remaining part reads,

> M44ks: you are my friend J404n, they are parasite[…] lol, that’s how youdeal with pests :D […] Ill be fine […] your my best friend, make the world better egghead :P […] ill miss you.
>
>

**[Computer Science 60% or a roll at -20% will manage to trace the source of the messages to a Starbucks a few miles out of New Haven, Connecticut. The FBI might have some more details, but it’s a cold case.]**

**March 2014**, Yale. Johan Merkel, graduates cum laude. He is the valedictorian. He gives a speech on the future, and friendship, and youth. Emeritus Prof. Philip C. Thillingast will remember it forever as the best speech he ever heard. He tried to google it yesterday, he could not find a recording anywhere. Weird, he was sure it was on YouTube. What happened to that bright young man?

**[Jessica Funk, graduate class 2014, remembers taking a video of the ceremony with her iPhone, a meth head stole her phone the same night. She managed to back up some of the picture on her iCloud, none showing a clear picture of Johan. She remembers the guy: she liked him; it wasn’t reciprocal. He was a gentleman about it. She never believed the rumors about him and the Dean.]**

**April 2014**, Yale. A rumor about the Dean and one of the students spreads like wildfire. A few days later, the body of the Dean is found in the lake, shirtless, with stones in his pockets. His shirt carefully folded on the bank. A note is folded in the breast pocket:

> “A useless life is an early death”
>
>

**[Art(Literature) the quote is from “Iphigenia in Tauris” by Johan Wolfgang Von Goethe]**

**Now-ish (2018-2020)**, here. The Agents meet a bright young man, he has been highly recommended by someone the Agents trust. His name is Johan.

## Roberto and Wolfgang

**Note: This section is meant for long-form play, and if the Agents decide to focus on investigating Johan’s past. In a normal scenario, they are unlikely to show up. Roberto is an example of True Friend, if you don’t plan to dig deeper into Johan’s past, just replace him with any loyal cultist or armed goon you already have in play.**

Roberto and Wolfgang are the other two kids that survived “сиротиште543”. Roberto is 10yrs older than Johan (in his late thirty early forty). Wolfgang is 5yrs older (mid thirty).

After the fire, both of them followed Johan in the new orphanage. The horror they witness during the fire at “сиротиште543”, changed them forever.

### Roberto

he went permanently insane; he has been Johan’s True Friend and guardian angel   since Herr Starr adopted him. He idolatrizes him. If someone tries to hurt Johan, he will kill them. His stats are not important, make him a smart brute. He’s not versed in academia, but he has all the skills of a dangerous special operator.

### Wolfgang

he saw what Johan did, he has been afraid of him ever since. Due to the aptitude in deceiving and manipulate people developed at “сиротиште543”, he was trained as a sleeper Agent by the Serbian Secret Police. He run away when the regime felt. He lives in Germany and works for UNICEF as a volunteer and as  an investigative reporter focusing on child rights violations. If contacted by the Agents to stop Johan, he will help as much as he could. But he will never confront him directly

## Johan, Dearest of All My Friends (age ???)

**STR** 9, **CON** 10, **DEX** 11, **INT** 17, **POW** 18, **CHA** 20

**HP** 9, **WP** 18, **SAN** n/a

**Motivation**: True friendship.

**Bonds ("friends"):**

* **<Agent>** 18
* **Roberto** (True Friend): 10

**Skills**: Science/Art/History/Computer Science 80%, Alertness 60%, Bureaucracy 75%, Stealth 40%, Unnatural 40%, First Aid 70%, Unarmed Combat 75%, Firearms 40%, Persuade 95%, HUMINT 90%, Language(English/French/Serbian/German/Spanish) 80%.

**Armor:**

* **Soothing Smile:** If a Bond tries to attack Johan, their hands will shake (“*I can’t. No, Johan*”). By spending **1d4WP+1d4BOND** Johan can **,**
	+ **On a hit:** make the attack miss (or do minimal damage if  AOE) and suppress the attacker (“guilt”)
	+ **On a critical:**  make the attack do normal damage (not double) or make a lethality attack automatically fail (2d10 damage instead).
* **The perfect suicide:** If Johan and the Agent have a **reciprocal** bond, any **non-lethality** damage  that would kill Johan, brings him to 1HP and sends him into a coma. Any remaining bond on the Agent side is automatically set to 0 (as if they killed him) and they are subjected to **1d4/1d8 SAN from helplessness** for killing a bond. If Johan survives or dies after this is up to the Agents.

**Rituals:**

* **Toxic friendship:** Johan can spend 1d4WP and 1d4Bond with his bond to trigger an addition in his “friend”. The victim can resist by rolling **1/1d4SAN from helplessness** or indulge into it. If they indulge, both Johan and the Agent bond increase by **1d4BOND**.
* **I can make it stop** Johan can use his charismatic persona to convince people around him to do his deeds. Like many abusers, he will pray on weak willed (POW<10) or lonely people. He will **never** use this power of his “friends” (i.e. the Agents). With a spend, he can convince his victim to do what he wants  while letting them believe it was their idea:
	+ **1d4WP:** Petty theft, simple assault, stealing a small object/document, harassing
	+ **1d10WP:** Manslaughter, homicide (for a seasoned killer), suicide leveraging on guilt,
	+ **1POW:**Homicide (if the person never killed before), murder-suicide, aggravated assault
* **True Friend:** Anyone who becomes permanently insane while still having a bond with Johan, will be entangled forever in his toxic friendship. They will do anything to protect him, even going against Johan’s will and trying to get rid of some “friends” that wish him harm. Killing  any of Johan’s  “friends” will reduce Johan bond with the true friend by **-1d4BOND.**

## Notes

1. ↑ If you want to use Johan as a disposable NPC, just make a random goon with good firearms to play Roberto’s role
2. ↑ Johan will make sure he knows the academic skill useful for the investigation.
3. ↑ Any former bond of his is allowed a POW contest to resist the compulsion.

## Suggested Media

The character of Johan is inspired by characters in different media:

Monster by Naoki Urasawa (Johan)

Max Payne 2: The Fall of Max Payne (Vladimir Lem)

The Consequences of Love (Titta di Girolamo)

The Family Friend (Giacomo Rizzo)

## Credits

Johan, Dearest of All my Friends was written by Agent Fintcher for the 2020 summer contest: NPC.

Agent Fintcher wrote:I purposely stayed away from the real life tragedy of the Romanian orphanages under Ceauşescu's, that's something horrible I don't think it's healthy having into a game.
The choice of including the orphanage was made to adapt the story of Urasawa's Johan (set in the 90s) to our days, that's why I decided to move the DG Johan from East Germany to Serbia.