SLC85: The Red Reverend

Location: Wanders the Mojave Desert in the southwestern United States.

Status: Active.

Description and Behavior: The Red Reverend is an anomalous human in the Mojave Desert known to always wear a crimson cassock and an often blood-covered clerical collar. It appears as a six-foot three-inch (1.9 meter) tall white American male in their late thirties with long, thick raven-black hair and beard. They are reported as having red irises, though this is difficult to verify as the entity prefers to wear heavily tinted goggles to protects its eyes from the sun. It has a muscular build and is always equipped with a M1903 Springfield rifle that has been modified with a scope. Where or how this entity obtains ammunition is not known.

This entity has exhibited a number of anomalous abilities. Primarily, the Red Reverend has the ability to heal itself and others of wounds and diseases, even to the point of regenerating limbs and organs. This healing is only granted to those the Reverend deems ‘worthy’. The entity also has the capacity to anomalously influence people to be more receptive of its opinion and the limited ability to predict future events. Finally, there is the possibility that the Red Reverend has the anomalous quality of being able to re-manifest, as several otherwise trustworthy sources have claimed to have killed this entity only for it to be sighted again.

The Red Reverend claims to have once been a Calvinist seminary student who, when the United States entered the First World War, enlisted in the Army and fought in the trenches of the Western Front. After this, the Reverend claims that it was sent to Russia as part of the intervention in the Russian Civil War only to end up being captured. Eventually it escaped and desperately hiked and fought through the Russian wilderness to try to get home. At some point during this process, the entity states that it saw “the maw of Hell open up” to “consume the Aristocratic and Bourgeois degenerates the Lord abhors” and at that point apparently received a “divine mandate to preach the Gospel of the Commune” with its newfound anomalous qualities. The entity apparently got back to the United States and now claims to have a commune of believers somewhere in the Mojave it leads. We have found no evidence of this commune.

Recommended Actions: If you are in the Mojave and encounter the Red Reverend, know that unless you are attacking it or decrying its ideology, including its religion, it is unlikely to attack you. If you are injured, it may even be willing to help you if it thinks you are worthy of help. Just be vigilant as to your mannerisms, as this entity is known to be rather paranoid and frequently accuses people of being “Bourgeois Agents”. We generally discourage people from purposefully seeking out this entity, more due to the danger of the desert than the entity itself.