Kelby had a pretty standard childhood, all things concerned. A straight C student through school, not that he couldn't get better grades, he certainly could if he applied himself, but he was far more interested in being popular among his peers than he was in passing classes. At about 15 he started learning to play the acoustic guitar at the suggestion of a friend, and found that he loved it. Dropped out of school a few years later to follow this passion, becoming a gig musician. He travelled around playing small festivals and the like, often making friends with the people he met along the way, from stage technicians to ren-faire performers, and learning some skills and tricks from them on the road.

Eventually, though, the lifestyle caught up to him. It was easy money, yes, but not a lot. Certainly not enough to be sustainable long-term. So, after a good few years, he settled down, got himself a small apartment, and secured a job at his local convenience store. This Is Where The Fuckening Begins.

Kelby doesn't know his manager, Hank, very well. To him, he's just a stern old guy. But he's more than meets the eye. He's got a vice, gambling. More specifically, gambling for magical artefacts. He's fucked around with all sorts of supernatural entities, demons, fey, vampires, and more, accruing more and more powerful items, and more and more enemies. Eventually, one of them catches up to him and he ends up dead. So what happens to all those artefacts? Well, turns out Hank had a plan for that.

So, Kelby turns up to work one day and hears Hank is dead. Huh. Okay then. He doesn't care all that much. And then a few days later, the executor of Hank's will calls him. Turns out the guy has posthumously gifted a lot of his more powerful magical items to his coworkers. In Kelby's case, he receives an old leather-bound tome that smells faintly of blood. What? What the fuck is he supposed to do with this?? It's written in Latin. He doesn't know Latin!! So he ignores it, leaves it to gather dust on a shelf in his apartment.

Yeah, uh, so, turns out the book is haunted. By Hank, specifically. And he's pissed that Kelby is letting all this good eldritch knowledge go to waste!! So for a good month Kelby's life consists of going to work and getting yelled at by customers, and then going home and getting yelled at by Hank's ghost. Predictably, he hates this. So when a Harbinger comes knocking with an offer that'll make the ghost knock it off? He jumps on it, no questions asked.