The Wizard

The Wizard is an organization that fights supernatural threats. They operate through anonymous e-mail accounts, dead drops, code-named agents and a very few safehouses. The organization lacks an official history, although there are plenty of rumours, and seems to have no goal other than protecting humanity as a whole from the bad things that threaten it - although that's certainly enough to keep them busy.

The central command is, naturally enough, called the Emerald City. Almost nobody knows where the Wizard is headquartered, or even if the Emerald City refers to a specific location in the real world, and those that do know are not upfront with the information. Mission briefings, orders and information requests from the Emerald City are channelled to agents directly - there is no formal structure to the organization. Although individual agents and operational groups may gain and lose prestige in the eyes of the organization, this prestige does not translate into authority, and agents cannot order each other to do anything. Generally, of course, more experienced agents will know what they're doing, so it's still a good idea to listen to them, but nothing says you have to. By contrast, if the City gives a direct order, you'd damn well better pay attention.

Agents of the Wizard generally belong to one of three "sections", called the Woodsman, the Scarecrow and the Lion. Each has its own general field of expertise, and many operational teams and individual agents make up each section and specialize further. Nobody outside the Emerald City knows exactly how many agents the Wizard has.

The Woodsman is the front line section of the Wizard's operational agents, and the division the PCs will be working for. Woodsman agents investigate credible reports of supernatural activity, gather field data for the Scarecrow, and put down any hostile entities they encounter. Woodsman operatives are also tasked with inducting new members into the conspiracy, as they are generally the first ones to make contact with civilians who have encountered the supernatural.

The Scarecrow is the information-gathering arm of the organization. Sources range from musty texts, to website rants, to classified documents. Given time and clear information, the Scarecrow is capable of providing highly relevant material for almost any situation. Unfortunately, time and clarity are rare things in a field operation, and the Scarecrow has a perhaps undeserved reputation for providing incomplete or seemingly irrelevant data. Still, against the Wizard's enemies, the right bit of mythology or information (or even the wrong one) can mean the difference between life and ugly fanged death.

The Lion is the hammer that gets called down when the Woodsman fails. Requesting Lion intervention is admitting that the mission has been botched so badly it's completely unsalvageable, and tends to create massive headaches and paper trails for the rest of the organization. Nevertheless, Lion operations are often highly effective when it comes to destroying their primary targets, though cavalier when it comes to collateral damage. Additionally, Lion agents are tasked with covering up the existence and operations of the Wizard, providing back-stories and credentials for field operatives as needed, and with handling any agents who go rogue with information or materials which could threaten the Wizard's existence (More typical rogue agents are generally left to the Woodsman). Lion operatives have a reputation as kill-crazy psychos or emotionless men in black.

In addition to field agents, the Wizard maintains a number of static agents across the country. Referred to as Munchkins, these agents are given the bare minimum of information to do whatever specific task they've been assigned (generally providing equipment for field agents, couriering messages or maintaining a safe house). In most cases, they're so in the dark that they don't even know their own moniker - which is probably for the best.

There are a lot of explanations for the naming scheme. One of the most popular is that it's a magic thing: As far as anyone knows, the Wizard is an exclusively American organization (and may actually be part of the US government), and it's an American story, so the City thinks the names give them some kind of edge. They might even be right. Of course, it has been pointed out that in the actual story, the Wizard is a fraud, and the various section namesake characters are flawed and retain these flaws despite the Wizard's "solutions". Some agents figure that this is some sort of reverse psychology. Other, more cynical agents just smirk, and whistle "If I Only Had a Brain" while reading Scarecrow reports.