played by Barry Tannenbaum, written by Earl Wajenberg
Carrols's passion is investigating weird events, and his hero is Charles Fort. Fort was a journalist, active around 1900, with a great disdain for scientific authority. He loved to collect reports of inexplicable events, such as strange objects falling from the sky, or people vanishing mysteriously, along with the usual ghosts and UFOs. But he didn't believe the traditional folklore explanations either. "Like everybody else," Fort wrote, "I don't know what to think, but, rather uncommonly, I know that."
Like his hero, Carrols is a true skeptic. He neither believes nor disbelieves the standard scientific model of the world, or any of the religious or occult models. He is great at suspending belief, thinks very little is really important, but that lots of things are great fun.
However, investigating anomalies doesn't pay the bills. To do that, Carrols works on contract as an editor for several different magazines and book publishers, working in non-fiction. Besides providing income, this gives him access to a wide variety of libraries, databases, and news services, giving him leads for his investigations. He works about half the time and goes on investigative vacations the other half.
He is naturally very ascetic, which helps him save money. He lives in a bare, sunny little apartment, furnished with some patio furniture, a bed consisting of a sleeping bag on a mattress, and lots of book cases made of raw boards and cinder blocks. He makes his investigation trips in a beat-up, elderly station wagon, replaced whenever it wears out. He is perfectly happy to forego hotel bills by camping out, and to survive on water, bread, and raw vegetables.
He has a good camera and a few other measuring instruments, but his main tool of investigation is careful and meticulous observation, and persistence. He has learned to interview people, thoroughly and patiently, usually leaving them with the impression that he is a cheerful and pleasant scientist. (He's often rather evasive about who he's working for, since the answer is only "myself.")
He will be immensely surprised and pleased to discover something truly anomalous involving the Courts and the Breakdown, but, after a while, he may well decide the Courtiers are not necessarily any closer to the ultimate truth about things than anyone else. Carrols is a wiry, sun-browned man in his mid-thirties, with black hair and beard, cut short but rather shaggily by himself. He usually wears tough, outdoors clothing.
Fortean Investigator: 80% — Carrols is familiar with all the usual weird things that happen, so he will notice if new weird things begin happening, or if there is a sudden increase in the weirdness rate. He also knows the standard scientific explanations or evasions of most anomalies and has a good general grounding in science. Being a Fortean, he doesn't necessarily believe it, though, or disbelieve in it.
Sign: Often makes off use of the phrase "the theory is," as in "the theory is that the sun will rise soon."
Ascetic: 70% — Carrols is very good at doing without. He is also good at scrounging, knowing where to find food or shelter where there might appear to be none. He can't use this ability to attack, but he can use it to resist hardship, including hardship inflicted by others. It also aids him in his persistence as an investigator.
Sign: Weatherbeaten.
Editor: 50% — Carrols knows how newspapers, magazines, book publishers, and news services work. He has contacts in them, and can pass himself off as a journalist. He also knows how to use their resources to track stories or research recent history.
Sign: Apartment and car are full of books and magazines.
Original appearance:
30-something white man, black hair, brown eyes, 75 kg (165 lbs), 152 cm (5'8"), strength 100 kg (220 lbs)
Current appearance:
25-ish white man, brown hair, hazel eyes, 75 kg (165 lbs), 160 cm (6'), strength 100 kg (220 lbs)
Languages: English, Spanish
Effort Pts: 17__________________________________________
x1= 17 x2= 34 x3= 51 x4= 68 x5= 85
Focus Pts: 13 __________________________________________
x1= 13 x2= 26 x3= 39 x4= 52 x5= 65
Psi Pts: 3 __________________________________________
x1= 3 x2= 6 x3= 9 x4= 12 x5= 15