Renny Janovich

Renyard "Renny" Janovich
First Episode TBD Concept Occult Charlaton Theme Song [1] Played By James Urbaniak
Profile Full Name Reynard Jacob Janovich Legal Status Still at large Known Aliases Robert Jacobvich Age 38 (31 Apparent) Birthplace Coney Island Hospital (Brighton Beach, NY) Favored Weapon Her Wits

Background (in Bullet Form)

Pre-History: The Janovich Family:

1893 - Yacob (Jacob) Janovich Born in Brooklyn NY to Ukrainian émigré parents

1915 - Yacob and his brother Nathan start Janovich Kosher Meat Company. Initially, they run it out of their father’s butcher shop, but it quickly expands due to increased export demands caused by WWI.

1919 - To supplement their income, Nathan begins running an illegal distillery out of the Janovich packing plant

1921 - Nathan Janovich killed in an industrial accident. Yacob continues the illegal distilling operation and also becomes involved in certain other organized crime activities, mostly specialized "disposals." As Jacob Jr. would later put it "Janovich Meats has the Kosher business, the non-Kosher business, . . . and the not at all Kosher business"

1922 - Jacob Janovich Jr (JJJ)born.

1923 - Semion (Sam) Janovich born

1940 - Sam Janovich marries Anya Ivankova.

1940 - Jacob Jr goes to England to fight as a volunteer in the British Army in WWII. After the war he continues to travel with a particular interest in occult and mystic items. He doesn't return to the US until 1965.

1943 - David Janovich Born. His parents, Sam and Anya, eventually have 4 additional children: Nathan, Katarina, Susanna and William. Nathan and William will later become part of local organized crime.

1955 - Jacob Janovich Sr. Dies of a heart attack. Sam Janovich takes over the family business.

1967 - David Janovich marries Maryam Madarovski

Rene Janovich’s History

• 07/22/73 – Reynard Julian Janovich born at Coney Island Hospital (Brighton Beach, NY) to David and Maryam.

• 3/17/75 - Sam Janovich dies of natural causes. Per his will control of the business transfers to his wife Anya. She immediately sets about reorganizing the company, including getting out of the "Not at all Kosher" aspects of the business.

• 5/12/75 – A burned out car containing the remains of Reynard’s parents is found on the Brooklyn side of Hell Gate Bridge. Though initially investigated as a murder, the final police reports list the deaths as accidental. There is a media sensation at the time, but no criminal charges are ever filed. Rene’s grandmother Anya takes over raising Rene.

• 10/22/85 – Jacob Janovich Jr. dies searching for the original Abbey of Thélème, (described by François Rabelais in “Gargantua and Pantagruel”). Rene is listed as his sole beneficiary despite never having met Jacob in person. The inheritance consists primarily of a large collection of occult artifacts and books. Rene ignores them at the time.

• 1986 – 1993 Rene has troubled teen years. He spends considerable time with his uncles despite them being declared “bad influences” by his grandmother. Rene has numerous scrapes and near scrapes with the law for various bits of hooliganism. He attends CUNY, majoring in psychology, but drops out before getting a degree. He takes some interest in his inheritance from Jacob Jr., but mostly he just sells bits and pieces of it for spare cash. He does study some of the books of Crowley and begins doing Tarot readings to earn extra money. He finds that he has some talent for accurate card readings.

• August 1994 – The spirit of Jacob Jr. appears to Rene during a fake séance, scaring off the client. JJJ berates Rene for squandering his gifts and true inheritance. Rene promises to make better use of his abilities in the future.

• January 1995 – Rene is sent to the NY State prison in Ossining for 6 months following conviction on fraud charges.

• 1997 – Anya Janovich dies. Ownership of Janovich Meats passes to a trusteeship set up for Sam and Anya’s children. Rene’s uncles Nathan and William (a.k.a “The Mobsters”) take over day to day operations. Rene holds various useless positions at the company.

• 1999 – 2001 – Rene is convicted of embezzlement following a scandal at the company. He serves 2 years of a 25 year sentence before the conviction is overturned on a technicality. Rene would not know until after his release that he was set up by his uncles, who also arranged for the technicality that allowed his eventual release.

• 2002 – Aug 2004 - Rene works as a con artist in NY. There are occasional charges brought against him, but none quite stick due to the interventions of his uncles and their associates.

• Aug 17, 2004 - One of Rene's client's, Galina Brezhnevskaya, becomes obsessed with him. Convinced that Rene is the re-incarnation of her long (very long) dead husband Vanya, Galina turns Rene and introduces him as Vanya to Brooklyn Cainite society (where she is regarded as something of a useful eccentric).

• Sept. 2004 - Dec. 2005 - Rene's transition is made difficult by his sire, who insists that he move in with her and live with her as her (human) husband, even to the point of forcing him to wear Vanya's century old clothing. He is also disturbed to find that his psychic abilities have become more powerful and accurate.

• Dec 2005 - Nov 2009 – Following an intervention by the Prince of Brooklyn, Rene moves from Galina's household. He attempts to return to his previous life, but even as his abilities make the job easier, his appetites prove difficult to control. He subsists primarily on cattle blood which he gets from the meat packing plant. He hides his condition from his uncles, who presume that Rene had set himself up as a gigolo to some wealthy old lady. During this time Galina continues to haunt him, both figuratively and occasionally literally (high Presence)

• Nov 2009 – At the Brooklyn Prince's “suggestion,” Rene leaves Brighton Beach for California. He decides to settle in Los Angeles to be near one of the company’s plants that renders chickens for the Asian market. He takes with him most of the contents of his grandmother’s house as well as his uncle’s collection of mystic esoterica, which he plans to use as props for his cons.

• Present – Following several disastrous encounters including a falling out with the local Giovanni, Rene escapes from LA for parts unknown.

Psychological Profile

Rene is a con artist by nature and it tends to color his thoughts and actions.

He also has had become used to weird things happening to him; typically bad, weird things.

Character Sheet

Character Name: Reynard Jacob Janovich
Chronicle: Natchez By Night
Nature: Seeker
Demeanor: Conniver
Concept: Occult Con Man

Abilities:

Talents:

Skills:

Knowledges:

Disciplines:

Advantages:

Backgrounds: 5 pts.
Resources: (2 pts.) (sublet/renting her condo after retirement for the income it would net her)
Contacts: (3 pts.)

• Gerald “Jerry” Grierson (1 pt.) NYPD, Irina’s Lieutenant at her old Precinct. (2 points held in reserve, work out with Jim what to spend them on)
  
  

Influence: 0—maybe can spend one of the reserve points on this one.

Virtues: 7 pts.
Conscience: 3
Self Control: 2
Courage: 5

Finishing Touches:
Humanity: 5
Willpower: 10 (spent 5 freebie points to bring to a 10)

Merits:

(cost in points, 17 pts.)

Mental:
Common Sense (1 pt): Being a Homicide Detective in the NYPD requires it. (Which means Maer will be asking the GM lots of questions so she can fake having some!)
Concentration (1 pt): When she latches on to a detail or an idea she can keep her mind on it better than most. Helpful for blocking out distractions.
Eidetic Memory (2 pts): Irina’s memory is extremely good and she can recall things in excruciating detail. It’s best when she’s concentrating, either during recall or memorization of what she observes.
Fast Learner (3 pts): She’s got a good eye for how things work, how they’re done, and how to do them. She has great recall and retains what she’s read/learned well.
Fast Reader (1 pt): She reads. A lot. She’s also fast at it. Coupled with her Eidetic Memory and Fast Learner, she gets more out of her reading than most.
Internet Savvy (2 pts): She uses the internet a lot—research/searches for her job as a Detective and later as a PI. She’s also on the internet a lot because she’s an insomniac.
Iron Will (3 pts): She’s well beyond stubborn.

Supernatural:
Unbondable (3 pts): Must be from having Iron Will.

Physical:
Acute sense (1 pt): She’s got acute sense of hearing. Ironic for someone who grew up in a noisy city like NYC, but there you go. Life is full of surprises.

Flaws:

(cost in points, 17 pts.)

Physical:
Chronic Illness (4 pts) Migraines: They can be debilitating, due to a head injury, and they have lingered on well beyond the injury’s recovery. Sometimes they build up over a span of days before hitting her, making her take extra care in what she does to avoid triggering them. The pain ranges from merely painful to debilitating—laying her flat out. They are triggered by irregular means: sometimes it’s stress, or caffeine, or loud noise, or lack of sleep, or …. They occur at irregular times: sometimes without warning or sometimes with warning; sometimes they are frequent and sometimes she goes for months before suffering another one. They last for irregular lengths of time:sometimes they last mere minutes, others for hours or days. They are predictably unpredictable. The doctors now think they are psycho-somatic and have recommended psychiatric treatment. Irina has so far refused to entertain the idea.
Broken Health (3 pts): Due to the insomnia and the migraines, Irina isn’t at the top of her game. Her stamina is not what it once was and any sport or activity that’s percussive on the body—running/jogging, sparring, boxing, brawling, sometimes even loud noises like firing her gun—has a chance to trigger a migraine.
Insomniac (2 pts): Memories of her captivity and beating make it hard for her to sleep. She’s a night owl as a result, and spends the time reading and learning and trawling on the internet.

Mental:
Nightmares (1 pt): She has nightmares. Not quite PTSD. But they do interrupt her sleep.

Social:
Enemy (3 pts): She pissed someone off when she was on the force. Not sure who. The people who captured her weren’t connected to any case she was working on that she can verify, but that doesn’t preclude criminal parties trading favors against a particularly annoying LEO.
Hunted (4 pts): As a consequence of her time on the force, she might also have people hunting her. She put a lot of people away when she was a detective.

The DiSanti Files

Read The Janovich Files here.

Links

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