Victor ended up buying the bodies of the manifestations. He was quite wealthy from his uncle's inheritance, and only grew richer thanks to well-made investments, and he would finally, finally, be able to advance his studies of the arcane and the occult, maybe even decipher that damned Grimoire. Returning home with the beasts, Victor withdrew to his study, only to find that all his hard work - the Latin dictionary, the notebook with translations, the lists of supplies for rituals - was now, suddenly, completely unnecessary. He could understand the Latin in the book, read and write and speak it as fluently as a native speaker without an ounce of true education on the topic. Exhilarated, the thoughts of what he could do with this accelerated learning racing through his head, how quickly he could finish his medical school qualifications, how much he stood to gain in wealth, Victor turned to the ritual on the first page of the Grimoire, no, The Dark Grimoire. It was a simple thing, listed in the book as a way to prevent it from being lost, and only required that the would-be magic user spill a single drop of blood onto the cover while reciting a short incantation. As soon as the ritual was complete, Victor felt something was wrong, a part of his soul, the very fabric of his being, feeling... tied, to the Dark Grimoire, almost as if it had become an entire additional organ. Victor tried not to focus on the feeling, to leave the book in his study and go for dinner, something he had missed for several days now, but it hurt, like someone was dragging a chipped knife across his brain. Victor Green was, for the rest of his days, bound to the Dark Grimoire.

Mateo Santana: Human, Male, Hispanic, approximately 5'11, is highly skilled with firearms, no supernatural properties presented.

Marie Alice: Human(?), Female, Caucasian, highly empathetic and capable of emotion manipulation, low-level precautions advised.

Victor Green (myself): Human, Male, European, 5'6, highly intelligent, studies medicine, well-versed in the supernatural and moderately skilled with firearms, physical attributes all those of a baseline individual, rendering vulnerable to violent confrontation, Highly logical.

Finished with yet another of the contracts, and moderately infuriated by the nonsensical nature of the magic butterscotch involved, Victor finally managed to return home. His bargaining with the elderly mystic known as 'Momma Ettu' had been going well, and their combined resources should be able to secure them the dog tags, finally allowing another avenue of research into the supernatural aside from simply reading his Grimoire and speculation, and even more beneficial would be the business relationship established with a much more experienced occultist, undoubtedly useful for when he moved on to the more complex, dangerous rituals described in the Dark Grimore. By far the best thing to come of his circumstances, however, was the fact that the state of accelerated learning had returned, Victor picking up on new skills far faster than he ever had before. Not wanting to waste any of what he now knew to be a temporary period, Victor swiftly began to follow through on pre-made plans, increasing his amount of exercise and studies of the occult, going so far as to reduce the time he spent sleeping to fit more learning in. Finally, Victor began the coup de grace of his studies, a new spell from the Grimoire. Calling upon the dark energies inherent to the Dark Grimoire, passed down through its many wielders along with the knowledge contained within, Victor shaped a needle-thin thread of the energies, and used it to draw upon the dark realm beyond that of the living. In a matter of seconds, the connection formed between Victor, the Dark Grimoire, and this plane of unlimited power, and a ball of Hellfire flared to life above his hand. Success had never tasted so sweet.

Sam: Human, Male, Asian, approximately 8 years old, capable of hypnotic arts, owner of Snom.

Snom: Snom, Gender Unknown, approximately the size of a rugby ball, capable of detecting and being detected by Sam at any distance, squishy.

Sahir Haj: Human, Male, Middle-Eastern, War Correspondent, poor decision-making skills, reasonably fast.

Jose Contraras: Human Male, Hispanic, Strong Moral Compass, owns and is proficient in the use of a low-powered lightning rifle.

After the contract, Momma Ettu had managed to arrange for Victor to be transferred to a hospital closer to home, which had the added benefit of increasing the quality of the facilities somewhat. As Victor lay there, arm in a sling, pain radiating from what he had been informed was damage to his spinal cord, damage which would forever (barring the intervention of mystical phenomena) hamper his ability to walk on his own, his mind raced. He tried to find exactly where everything went wrong, exactly how he ended up in this state. Sahir certainly hadn't helped matters, his casual attempt at blackmail being the thing which forced the entire confrontation in the fisrt place, but surely one man making (repeated) poor calls in a social situation wasn't the only reason Victor had ended up like this. He'd seen the gun, he'd expected the fight to break out, he'd even incinerated one of their assailants on the spot, but he hadn't had anything resembling a real plan! What had he expected, that he would just conjure up a ball of Hellfire and scare off the uneducated locals? Ha, that had sure worked out great. The Village Head (his name was Song? Son?) had shrugged off one of his bolts before demonstrating clearly supernatural strength to shatter his arm, though fortunately the breaks had been smooth enough to heal cleanly. No, Victor had been overconfident, and he had payed the price. His successes had convinced him of his own power, and he had forgotten what exactly he was involved in. The Contracts. A trade. Phenomenal powers... at the risk of death. Victor flipped through his Grimoire, fortunately left in his posession thanks to Momma Ettus intervention, and began to read up on the next spell he sought to master. He wouldn't be caught flat-footed again.

Momma Ettu: Human, Female, Elderly, well-versed in mystic phenomena and skilled with several forms of curse and enchantment. Extremely wealthy.

Aki Shizuko: Human, Female, Asian, capable of projecting bubbles of slowed time that can block bullets, is completely blind, struggles with direct confrontation.

Sahir (update): further evidence of poor decision-making skills, along with malicious and self-serving tendencies. Is just about smart enough to know not to anger elderly mystics.

As soon as Victor returned to his manor, he threw himself into his studies of magic. Without his ability to summon Brutus, He strongly suspected they would have suffered much worse than they had in the Hospital, but at the end of the day Brutus was more useful mound of meat than actual functional servant, his raw strength putting him about on par with a moderately trained adult in a fight, and his speed was about equal. The lack of damage was pretty easy to cover for, Victor even had a few ideas on how to improve the range of the Hellfire Bolt from the spell he'd cast to drive off the reaching horror at the apartment, but mobility was a weak point he sorely needed to cover. As it was, Victors best option at the moment was to learn the ritual for summoning an imp, the tiny creatures capable of flying at high speeds and even of pelting their foes with small bolts of hellfire, though their actual potential for damage was lackluster, to say the least. Best of all, they had sharp senses, and were capable of reporting information back to their summoner, although only in a basic manner, allowing them to scout out an area for him. He refused to be caught off guard like this again. As Victor studied, a notification appeared on his phone. That fool Sahir had made his payment for the month, 100,000 in U.S. Dollars that he had to pay until he found that healer for Victors spine. Victor had no clue how the man was managing to be consistent in his payments, but all the better for him if the money kept flowing.

Jackson: Human(?), Male, large, heavily scarred individual with Golden Eyes, sensitive to occult forces, poor pattern recognition.

Alexander: Human, Male, Middle-Aged Doctor (note to self: check if licensed practitioner), poor survival instincts, possibly hated by Eldritch Being, minimise contact.

Victor had allowed Niel to stay at his manor with him. The man was highly intelligent and also a scholar of the field, so it had seemed an ideal solution to the mans inability to return home on his own, and conversation with him was quite intellectually stimulating. Apparently, Niel had a bit less experience with actual contracts than Victor, but the fields of research he was familiar with was far more vast than Victors own, if not quite as deep in his knowledge. During his stay, Victor helped Niel with the preparation of another runic circle, similar to the ones on his hands and foot, that would allow him to draw greater power from a lesser deity he had formed a contract with. The rumoured incident up north was apparently a result of his first contact with the creature. The circle would act as a reciever, allowing Niels god to run what was essentially an auxilary brain on Niels body, helping him whenever he used his magic.

In the meantime, to recover from his injuries, Victor had found a spell in his Dark Grimoire that would allow the energies from the book to bolster his life force, granting an accelerated regenerative ability. Combined with a ritual near the back of the Grimoire, and Victors days of scrambling for a healer would be over, and he would once more be able to walk. Once the ritual to connect Victor with his Grimoire further was complete, a surge of energy flowed through him, his already partially healed injuries smoothing over and vanishing over the course of a few hours. This would do nicely.

Sahir: Human, Male, Deceased.

Niel: Human, Male, Elderly Occultist, uses bargain with Lesser Deity as source of his powers, runic circles on hands, foot, and chest necessary for use of powers, broad knowledge of occult forces.

Mildred: Human, Female, Convinced they are a medieval princess trapped in a dream, unused to life as a contractor, skills with lockpicking and weaponry mediocre.

Damien: Human, Male, Young mercenary with magical equipment, magical armour was destroyed during conflict, exceptional senses, dangerous marksman.