Ishmael

"Time to pay the piper..."

The Vampire-Hunter known as Ishmael (NOTE: Real name : Marcus Henderson) was first encountered on October 13th 1993 by Team Jigsaw.
Team Jigsaw was investigating a suspected vampire in New York and had managed to trail a neophyte vampire back to its lair in the subway system. Upon entering the neophyte's lair Team Jigsaw found themselves in what Rusty Cromwell (Team Jigsaw's Mage) called the "The Vampire Holiday Inn". An old subway tunnel had been converted into "living" quarters for a dozen vampires, complete with televisions, VCRs and double beds. Unfortunately for Team Jigsaw it seemed everyone was home and none of the vampires were happy to have guests.
As the vampires advanced on Team Jigsaw, Bruce Glass (Team Medic and low level Psi) detected a presence other than the vampires and the Team.
Suddenly there was a bright flash of light that blinded the vampire horde for a moment. In that moment the Team opened up on the fiends with everything they had, meanwhile the figure of a man seemed to materialize from nowhere. The unknown man waded into a pack of the vampires and as he did so, his body rippled and he transformed into a huge grizzly bear. The bear-form man roared in fury and began tearing open the chests of the vampires with his claws.
When the battle was finally over the bear rippled and returned to human form and introduced himself as Ishmael - Vampire hunter. Before he could be thanked for his help, Ishmael berated the team for letting themselves be ambushed so easily. As he spoke he went to the vampires "kitchen" and picked up a gallon jug of something, once he was finished pointing out the teams shortcomings he drained the container in one long swallow. Ishmael gave a sigh of relief and suddenly his body rippled again. Now in the form of a bat, Ishmael flew out of the vampires haven and disappeared into the darkness of the subway tunnels. Glass examined the jug and determined that its contents had been human blood. The team was unable to find any trace of Ishmael after his departure.

Several months later a Zefram Cambridge (a senior member of the Van Helsing Society) was helping Team Jigsaw research an old vampiric myth and heard of the teams encounter in the subway. He appeared shaken and informed the Team that they had encountered a former Van Helsing member who had been a budding mage. Marcus was adopted by Zefram's superior, Josef Waldese, Marcus had shown a surprising aptitude for magic and was well on his way to becoming a full-blown sorcerer when youthful exuberance got the better of him. Marcus decided to use his magic to track down a book of magic that was reputed to be in the hands of an ancient vampire.
Marcus managed to track the book through divination and embarked upon a journey to recover the book from the vampire himself. Marcus managed to overcome the vampire's guardians but expended too much of his energies in the process and fell to the vampire himself. As Marcus was being drained by the ancient fiend, the Van Helsing Society rescued him. Marcus died as a result of the vampire bite and was buried. After 3 days Marcus rose as a vampire and emerged from his grave to find himself surrounded by Van Helsing members armed with flame-throwers and crossbows. Even in his dazed state Marcus realized that his former friends did not want to hurt him, and using his magic he created a flash of light to blind his ex-compatriots. he then used his vampiric ability to transform into a bat to escape, narrowly avoiding several crossbow shafts.
Since that time it seems Ishmael has gained in power and is acting as a lone hunter of vampires. If encountered again, the team is encouraged to try to rercruit him or at least get him to ally with the Bureau.

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Source Material: William Travis