Alvaro Vasquez

### Profession

Adventurer and aristocrat (until the final part of In Gold We Trust)Satanic crime lord (after In Gold We Trust)

### Affiliation

Alvaro's Lost City Expedition (leader);Masked Man's Crime Organization (leader);The Devil (master)

### Chapters present

In Gold We Trust and As Good As DeadMethod in Madness and Hard Times (mentioned only)

**Alvaro Vasquez**, often referred to as simply **Vasquez**, is a secondary character in Hard West's main campaign. The son of a wealthy aristocrat, Vasquez's dreams of fortune led him to Grand Inquisitor Cervantes, who told him of an ancient Mayan legend of a city of gold capable of cementing his name in history. During his expedition to the lost city, Vasquez acquired a mysterious jade mask which, when he donned it, turned him into the evil **Masked Man**.

## Events of Hard West

### In Gold We Trust

Alvaro Vasquez, as shown in the introduction custcene, was a man born of wealth and privilege. However, even though his life was one of luxury, he sought the fame and glory that followed an adventurous life, hoping to become a fulfilled man. One day, he either sought or was sought after by Grand Inquisitor Cervantes, who informed Vasquez of a Mayan legend involving a lost city of gold. Intrigued by the prospects of such discovery, Vasquez organized an expedition to the lost city, accompanied by the Inquisitor, his mentor Señor Zacarías, his friend Diego and several peons. However, the story of Vasquez's expedition was spread among other explorers, and a group decided to kidnap the expedition before reaching their destination. As the rogue explorers tortured the Inquisitor, Vasquez managed to escape his captivity, free Zacarías and Diego and defeat their kidnappers.

The first step towards reaching the lost city involved crossing a river, for which Vasquez's expedition needed to build a boat capable of bringing their supplies to the other side. Regardless of whether they looked for supplies to assist with the Inquisitor's wounds or not, Cervantes is carried away by Vasquez's men, and the Inquistor urges the explorer to "follow the red star" in order to find the city. Once enough wood has been gathered, the expedition builds a boat and begins to load its supplies onto it. However, during that time, Lafortuna's men would attack the group, forcing Vasquez to defend his men until at least a reasonable amount of supplies have been crossed to the other side of the river, possibly holding out untill all of them have been.

On the other side of the river, Vasquez's group comes across a town with remarkable characteristics: the people there, although Native Americans, all wear modern Western clothing and possess gear to similar to what one would find throughout the West, despite it being a completely uncharted region. As the expedition proceeds with their journey to the fabled city, they that discover the natives have a heavily-guarded fort with armed military personnel blocking their access forward. It is during this time that Vasquez comes across fellow explorer Victor Suncove, and the two unite in order to overcome their common obstacle to the Mayan city. Seeing that the native forces are also stationed in two outposts surrounding the fort, Vasquez can order his peons to attack the locations before striking at the fort, diminishing the native's reinforcements then.

After moving through the fort, Vasquez's expedition is forced to proceed through another mysterious area, searching for a way to move through an ancient wall blocking their way forward. In order to do so, Vasquez must sacrifice several of his peons to obtain the right information on how to move along, or constantly risk his men's life to do so recklessly. Eventually, after overcoming the wall, Vasquez and his companions Señor Zacarías, Suncove and a third man discover an ancient church, and inside, they find a jade mask and a stone with writing of an unknown language etched upon it. Once Vasquez puts the mask on, his personality markedly changes to a more dispassionate demanor, thus turning him into the Masked Man, and allowing him to perfectly read the writing on the stone. The Masked Man then says that to move forward, the group must deal with a traitor in their midst: Diego, Vasquez's friend, who decided to stay behind with a few peons while the group went to the church.

Once the party returns to camp, a shootout ensues, and Diego and his accomplices are killed. Zacarías tries to console Vasquez's over the death of his closest friend, but the Masked Man is indifferent to his compassion, seeking only to reach the mysterious city. As they move along their journey, the group finds temporary respite in a waterfall of invigorating water, curing them of their previous illnesses and wounds. Both the Masked Man and Zacarías talk for a while, pledging to remain friends despite everything that has happened.

Finally, the expedition reaches the outer area of the lost city. Instead of the promised "city of gold", the area is a decrepit and cursed ruin, with no wealth or fortune in sight of discovering it. Zacarías, in spite of his previous pledges, decides to stop Vasquez's in his journey of entering the city, and a battle begins. During the firefight, the Masked Man murders Zacarías as he did Diego, which opens the gates to the Mayan city, allowing Vasquez's entry into its very heart. Upon reaching the center of the city, the Devil appears on Earth, pleased with the Masked Man's work and ready to enact the next step of his diabolical plan of creating a new world order.

The scenario ends here, but it is implied the Masked Man, under the blessing of the Devil, grew to become an extremely powerful crime lord over the West, establishing a great criminal empire capable of instilling fear and obedience into the hearts of droves of criminals and bandits. Aside from criminal dealings, the Masked Man is also believed to carry out the Devil's will, conducting brutal sacrifices to grant him favor and expand his master's influence over the West, cementing himself as a figure of unquestionable infamy and fear.

### Hard Times

The Undertaker, his wife and Warren, their son, upon failing to prosper along the Oregon Trail, are left almost destitute, which prompts the father to try to sell his hunting gear for supplies in a town along their way, but they are unaware that said town was under the control of Satanic cultists, which kidnap the family, decapitating Warren's mother to use her head for a ritual. It is unclear if these criminals were under the employment of the Masked Man or if they acted on their own, even if the Masked Man did control all crime in the region.

Later, when Warren and his father decide to prospect for gold, they go to the Masked Man's thugs for a license, as their master owns all the rights to gold prospecting in the region. When Moritz Haase and his men decide to attack the family's homestead after hearing about the successful gold prospecting, El Eschuro, a local loan shark likely under the employment of the Masked Man, is the one to assist Warren's family. Later, El Eschuro is killed by Warren, his father, Florence and possibly Pate Douglas for extorting their business. His death causes the town he operated in to dwindle into anarchy, although the Masked Man does not take any form of revenge upon Warren and his family for doing so.

### As Good As Dead

The Masked Man appears as the main antagonist in this chapter. The Devil, seeing Warren as a more promising pawn to carry out the next part of his master plan, seeks to have his previous pawn killed. During a card game in a salloon, the Masked Man unexpectedly loses to Warren in a poker game, prompting the crime lord into ordering his and Florence's death. After a firefight, the Masked Man's thugs kill Warren and his beloved. Unbeknownst to the Masked Man, however, the Devil had made an agreement with Warren, allowing him to return to life and take revenge on the crime lord. After killing the men in the town, Warren sets out to destroy the Masked Man's organization, destroying his property to a sum of more than US$ 50,000, as well as ruthlessly murdering his personnel, regardless of whether they would actually be criminals or not.

Ultimately, Warren tracks the Masked Man's base down, and after a long firefight, the undead gunslinger kills the crime lord, effectively ending the Masked Man's years-long reign of terror over the West.

### Method in Madness

Alvaro Vasquez is mentioned in this stage by his father, to whom Solomon DeLear must speak to in order to acquire knowledge relating to his work on the Madness. The patriarch of the Vasquez family lives in a once-opulent, now-decrepit mansion, and once the scientist has obtained the password "Jade is the color of silence", Vasquez's father will speak to him. Asking other locals about him will prompt them to tell DeLear that Vasquez's father has been waiting his son Alvaro to return from his expedition for years now. It is unknown how many years have passed between the events of "In Gold We Trust" and "Method in Madness", but neither Vasquez's father appears to know that his son has become the Masked Man, nor has the Masked Man made efforts to reach out to his father since leaving for the mysterious city.

## Description

Alvaro Vasquez is a Caucasian man with blue eyes and a well-kept black hair and a mustache. He wears what appears to be a black suit with a red scarf on his neck. Vasquez is described as a hot-headed adventurer, someone who dreams for fulfillment beyond the riches and privilege he was alredy born with. He is also regarded as ambitious, seeking an adventure that would make him not merely more wealthy, but remembered for his deeds.

Later, upon donning the jade mask, Vasquez's personality changes markedly: the Masked Man is uncaring and cold to a sociopathic degree. He does not appear to revel in his brutality and viciousness, but carry out his actions and orders dispassionately, regardless what they are or against whom he will do them to. Similarly to before, the Masked Man wears Vasquez's suit, the jade mask over his face the only detail that separates him from his previous form. As the mask cannot be taken off, it is a mystery how Vasquez's face looks beneath it after years of constant use.