Bestiary

Adrian Newberry

Division Director, Operations (OPD)

The most prominent face in the Pentex organization these days, Adrian Newberry has a lot of weight on his shoulders and is somehow able to cope with it all through a gentle smile and a reassuring gaze, His immaculate dress sense and healthy blonde hair never appear out of place or less than perfect. Newberry travels to major Pentex sites on a regular 18-month schedule. He flies by private jet, arriving in style, and shakes hands with business managers and rank-and-file employees alike — allowing everyone to think he is a truly caring Director.

Beneath the tanned skin of the well-groomed ex­ ecutive lives a being with a personality as warm as ice. Newberry is undoubtedly one of the most efficient and effective Directors at the helm of Pentex. He speaks to the Board in short, clipped sentences, never elaborating unless necessary. He is painfully aware of time, and hates to see it wasted by prattling employees. The only times his facade of friendliness drops when visiting external

sites have been when someone keeps him waiting for longer than he deems necessary. The Directors joke that Newberry personally chopped off the fingers and toes of a secretary who held him up for twenty minutes. It isn’t a joke. He keeps the bones in a box at his office.

Despite his ever-cool demeanor, Newberry is some­ what paranoid about one secret he keeps from the rest of the Board. Acting on advice from one of the many aspects of Eater-of-Souls, he has secretly appropriated the heads of former Directors Meiche, Kromrich, Allred, and Kiker after their deaths. He’s subsequently mummified the heads, keeping them in jars in a cabinet in his Nantucket penthouse. He is somehow capable of communicating with the disembodied remains of his former colleagues allowing him to make various leaps and bounds in the company as a result. In turn, he grants the decapitated Directors the possibility of continued service to the Wyrm. Whether they appreciate this service would be open to debate, were anyone to find out about their current status.

Newberry’s relationship with the other living mem­ bers of the Board is frigid yet polite. He feels comfortable around other degenerates, having learned of several of the vices afflicting his immediate associates. He drops all airs and graces when in conversation with the other Directors, knowing that to lie in a sea of liars is about as useful as trying to type with no fingers.