Moe Frankfort

The Agency (Treasurer)

> *"I’ve seen enough movies to know that the only solution to a town stuck in its ways is a really big party, and luckily for you guys I happen to know a lot about parties."*
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**Morris "Moe" Gene Frankfort**is an American entrepreneur, businessman, and millionaire, and one of the protagonists of Valewood Tales who now works at the Agency. He is suave and cheerful, and lives in Valewood at Darkstone Manor.

## History

At some point in Moe's past, he attended a college and was part of a fraternity with the famous actor and entrepeneur Kurt Stander. However, Stander stole Moe's ideas for a computer software company and kicked him out of the fraternity, causing Moe to camp out in a car for six months.

In an effort to spite Stander's new company, Moe invested the last of his cash in their business rivals - a risky gamble which accidentally paid off as they went big and landed Moe with a whole lot of money. He later renamed the company to Frankfort Innovations.

Some time after this, a lot closer to the present day, Moe bought Darkstone Manor and moved to Valewood for reasons unknown.

## In Valewood

### **The Mystery of Darkstone Manor**

Moe first meets the others when Andrew, May and Elizabeth arrive at Darkstone Manor to investigate the mystery of Douglas Wheatley, pretending to be there on photography business. However, Moe and his butler Toby Kentworth quickly discover that there was no booked photography appointment and, having confronted May, ventures into the basement to find a strange chamber inhabited by the mysterious and panicky Darwin Archimedes. When the gang are attacked by the Securobot, Moe is the first to take action and attempts to wrestle it to the ground, with minimal success. After the robot explodes, Moe excitedly recovers and declares that the fight was awesome. As they leave for the night, Moe expresses interest in doing something similar again - but May is not interested. They are then confronted by Kentworth, who reveals that he called the police on the intruders. Moe immediately expresses regret, but they are rescued by Elizabeth, wielding the Memorb.

### **The Self-Made Men**

Several days later, Moe is contacted by Darwin with regard to getting him to fund a potential new business - a paranormal detective agency. At The Gathered Strangers, Moe misunderstands the purpose of the meeting and ends up agreeing to work for the agency, though this is quickly accepted by Darwin as the former offers to pay for everything, on the condition that he is allowed to join.

### **The Reingard Runes**

A few days later, the mysterious appearance of runes all over town prompted him to head into Valewood Town Square with Andrew and Darwin to investigate, where they encountered Jen Holders; a museum curator who hired them to solve the mystery of the runes and thus became the Agency's first client. Later that day, he and Andrew set out to search for Jean Reingard. Inviting the strange old man into the Agency, they learned the truth about the runes and were subsequently cast into a deep and shadowy hole as Reingard revealed his magical abilities and plan to steal the ancient magic of a mystery sorceress. They found themselves in a pocket dimension known as Reingard's Realm, and quickly fled the villainous wizard as he threatened them. However, Reingard quickly caught up with and incapacitated them, bringing them both to the Valewood Museum of Art and History, where he and his partner Jen Holders began to drain May Winter of her latent magical abilities. May retaliated, freeing Andrew and Moe from Reingard's control. A battle ensued in which Reingard was defeated and he fled the scene.

### **Darwintervention**

Moe makes his appearance reclining on the sofa watching *Gunion* and playing games on his phone, seeming reluctant to give Darwin the money for his Necronomicomicon ticket. The next day, Andrew confronts him about his strange attitude, having learned some part of the truth from May and Elizabeth. Moe quickly loses his temper and an argument ensues. After they are distracted by witnessing Darwin and Nate Grant rush into Burns Realty, Andrew and Moe put aside their argument and join Elizabeth and May in venturing into the building's basement, where they rescue Darwin from being killed by a possessed Nate. However, Monothiel Blackwill reacts strangely to Andrew's presence and angrily compares him to his grandfather Douglas. Elizabeth defends Andrew by throwing a book at the old man, but Nate attacks them. Darwin is able to subdue him by commandeering a book of occult belonging to Monothiel and performing an impromptu exorcism. The old man escapes before he can be confronted again by Nate.

### **The Wrong Ghost**

Moe works with Nate on Halloween to decorate the Agency. When he learns that Valewood does not celebrate the holiday, he decides to throw a party at Darkstone Manor to inspire the townsfolk. Eventually however, nobody shows up except two suspicious ghost hunters. May and Moe discover their true identity and Elizabeth works with Nate to fight them as they turn out to be alien invaders, and they are eventually defeated by the explosion of a second moon curse.

## Appearance

Moe wears a bright blue suit with a dark blue tie and accompanying white shirt, with grey shoes. His hair is brown and neatly combed, probably as befitting somebody with an unreasonable amount of money. He is the tallest of the protagonists, and is healthy-looking. A picture of him bathing in money reveals that he is surprisingly muscular. For his Halloween party, he wore a costume that was completely incomprehensible and waited for someone to guess what it was. Nobody tried.

## Personality

As a guarded and solitary millionaire living alone in a mansion on the hill, Moe has a tendency towards being a complex guy. He first appears to be sinister and stoic, though quickly establishes himself as hot-headed and excitable in the right situation. Moe is surprisingly good in a crisis and is often the first to jump to a physical attack or defence if needed to, though this can and will backfire if the opponent is a Securobot, a mad wizard or a possessed demon hunter with an axe. This doesn't seem to have stopped him yet.

However, Moe is visibly struggling with a troubled past, as evidenced by his behaviour when refusing to pay for Darwin's convention ticket - and is also secretive, as he lies extensively about the reasons for it and actively attempts to conceal them when confronted about it by Andrew. He can also be very self-centred and self-pitying, though it appears that he is trying to change this.

## Trivia

* According to Alex Donald's Twitter, Moe has committed tax fraud.
* Moe enjoys watching teleshopping in his spare time, and owns a business card made of solid gold, which he gave to Darwin at the conclusion of The Mystery of Darkstone Manor.
* Moe vapes in business meetings in an attempt to look cool. May once caught him doing it and made fun of him so hard that he stopped for good.
* His next birthday party will involve a cheese fondue volcano.