Mandy by Barry Manilow (clone)

Who is Mandy? It is hard to say, because she is a con artist!

She began her relationship with the occult by scamming people as a medium, a fortune teller, and a purveyor of "magical" artifacts. She would work alone on small time marks, and sometimes with a small ensemble for whales.

(This period of her life accounts for the inclusion of Easy Mark, Elusive, Small Favor, Think on Your Feet, Calling in Favors, Dr. Elli Horowitz, Anna Kaslow with her Tarot cards, Mr. "Rook", Three Aces, In the Know and Charisma).

As she grew older, the excitement of the grift started to become a grind, and the danger of being a criminal became more of a concern, she moved on to a new career: she began selling her services as a private investigator specializing in debunking supernatural claims. "You can't scam a scammer!" she would always say. She would investigate claims of hauntings, possessions, and miraculous events. She would expose the perpetrators on behalf of wronged parties, and still, sometimes, if the opportunity presented itself, she would blackmail them.

It was in the course of one of these investigations that she brushed up against the truly horrifying reality of the universe. Not only could she not debunk the supernatural claim she had come to investigate, she herself witnessed something... otherworldly, and had an experience she could not explain any other way.

(This period of her life accounts for the inclusion of Shocking Discovery, Astounding Revelation, and Occult Evidence)

She became obsessed with researching the "actual" occult. The real shit. She began to question all of her old beliefs, and to search for and acquire actual artifacts. She contacted her old friends to help her run scams again, to fund her research and acquisitions.

(this period accounts for Research Librarian, Eureka, No Stone Unturned, Old Book of Lore, Otherworld Codex, Segment of Onyx, and Pendant of the Queen).

It is in this period of her life that she heads to the Excelsior Hotel, skeptical that anything more than another scam is happening, but also excited and terrified by the prospect that it could be her second encounter with the tantalizing mythos...