Author Archive: Admiral Squish

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#4 Ferdinand

| November 6, 2010 | 0 Comments

World:
A world of dragons and demons, magic and might, elves and dwarves. They all live together in an untamed world where mankind has yet to completely alter the landscape. This is a world where there are secrets to uncover, arcane mysteries to decipher, lands to explore and monsters to discover.

Species:
Ferdinand is a minotaur, a race of physically powerful bull-men. The minotaur have a long, bloody history of war and violence, though the violence was mostly contained in their natural habitat, the twisting, winding tunnels and caves that honeycomb the continent just below the surface. Thanks to their environment, minotaur have developed an uncanny sense of direction. They always know which way is north, and they never forget the way they came.

Appearance:
Ferdinand is large, even for a minotaur. Standing almost 12 feet tall, Ferdinand’s frame is massive and broad, layered with muscle. Despite this massive body, Ferdinand is one of the most calm and peaceful people you’ll ever meet. He wears little armor, settling simply for a light shirt of chain mail and a large cloak. His bovine head bears a pair of long ivory horns that extend nearly two feet to each side. He generally carries a large walking stick with a thick, knobbly end and a large backpack.

Equipment:
Ferdinand’s equipment consists of a shirt of chain mail, custom-made to fit his size, his cloak, his knobbly walking stick, his backpack, and his notebook.

His cloak is the first item that is more than it seems. The cloak itself is enchanted, though only very lightly. When the wearer of the cloak draws it tight around himself, he is immune to the effects of harsh weather of all sorts. Rain, snow, sleet, arctic winds, sandstorms, they all simply ignore the wearer. In addition, it continually repairs and cleans itself.

The second item that is more than it seems is his walking stick. Though he doesn’t particularly enjoy violence, there are times when his journey brings him into conflict with the various beasts and monsters of the land. The iron core of his stick allows him to pack a little more punch when it comes down to those unfortunate circumstances. It too, is lightly enchanted, and he may use it to avoid the situations required to use it. By holding it in front of him and concentrating, it emits a calming aura that can quell the tempers of man and beast.

Finally, his backpack. This large bag is covered with pockets and pouches. And while it is a rather large bag, it’s even larger than it appears. The inside of the bag is larger than the outside, and it is enchanted so that even if one were to store the entire hoard of a dragon inside it, you could always open it to find the desired item on top of it.

The final item is his notebook. This book is a huge, leather-bound tome, filled with blank pages. Ferdinand’s pen is enchanted as well, able to change colors of ink with a though.  Ferdinand fills his tome with the findings of his journey, sketches of monsters, maps of foreign lands, pressed exotic flowers and plants.

Personality:
Ferdinand is surprisingly calm and peaceful for a minotaur. He loves to explore and he has a particular interest in observing exotic flora and fauna. He has a deep and abiding fascination with the natural word, and never misses an opportunity to stop and smell the flowers.

Backstory:
Ferdinand was born to a relatively small minotaur tribe, one without much power. His tribe was the weakest of the minotaurs in the region. They lacked both physical and magical power, and weren’t charismatic or particularly manipulative. The one advantage that allowed them to survive was their intelligence. They learned the ways of the monsters of the tunnels and their enemies, exploiting this knowledge to their own advantage. They had a long tradition of passing down their knowledge to the younger generations.

Ferdinand was quite unusual for the tribe of small, physically weak minotaurs in that he grew fast and he grew huge, much bigger than all his peers, and even bigger than most of the adults. The other part that was unusual is that while all the other young bulls would lock horns and constantly squabble, Ferdinand was calm and peaceful. He almost never fought the other bulls, though when he finally did fight it ended rather quickly. Consequently, most of his peers simply left him alone. He seemed to have no interest in learning how to fight or hunt, and spent a lot of time wandering off into the  tunnels, exploring them eagerly.

Eventually, Ferdinand was wandering the tunnels as usual, when he smelled something interesting. Following his nose led him through one tunnel after another until, eventually, he emerged from the cave into the surface world. Blinking in the sudden brightness, once his vision cleared, he found himself in a world full of light and color and all sorts of interesting plants and animals he’d never even imagined! It was like a kid in a candy store as he wandered further and further from the cave mouth, awash in the new and fascinating things.

It was in this state the slavers found him. More specifically, they found him as he discovered that a beehive was not something to play with. So, when the slavers found a massively built minotaur flailing about in a rage, they immediately though he would be perfect material for the coliseum. They quickly netted and bound him, knocked him unconscious, and dragged him off to the arena. When it came time for his fight however, Ferdinand still had no idea what was going on. He simply picked up one of the flowers the crowd had thrown down to the ring and sat against the wall sniffing it. One of the gladiators in the ring, a half giant, tried to figure out what he was doing. When he explained it to the arena chiefs, they kicked Ferdinand out. Nobody would pay to see a flower-sniffing minotaur. He was no fun to watch get murdered, he wouldn’t fight, and he cost too much to feed.

Ferdinand, once again freed on the surface of this fascinating planet, set about exploring as he was wont to do. Learning now that life on the surface of the planet was expensive and he had nothing to sell, he seemed to have his a stumbling block. But when a mapmaker passed him on the street sketching tunnels and offered him a tidy sum to come and draw a map of the tunnels where he was raised, it seemed he figured out his task. And so, he began selling his services to mapmakers and schools. He became an explorer, traveling to distant lands to map them and learn all about the native life there.

And that is the life he has lived for the past 20 years. Ferdinand is no longer a young bull, but he still bears his characteristic size and strength as he travels through the land.

Desires:

Ferdinand’s ultimate desire is discovery. He hopes to one day map the entire world and teach others all the incredible thing he’s learned.

Fears:

Ferdinand’s main fear is that he won’t be able to pass on his knowledge. He’s not afraid of monsters or hazards, and shows an almost foolish bravery. He’s walked right past bears because he saw a rare herb nearby and didn’t notice the animal.

Secret:
Ferdinand’s secret is the one place he can’t find. He’s never been able to find the entrance he emerged from in the first place, or the caves he used to call home.

#3 “Crazy” Jim Cox

| November 5, 2010 | 0 Comments

Appearance:
“Crazy” Jim has an outward appearance that one would think typical of his profession. He’s got a large build, with broad shoulders and powerful arms, but a large, round belly. He wears his blond hair long and tied back into a ponytail. He’s typically wearing a beaten flannel shirt without sleeves and a ball cap.

Equipment:
Jim’s pride and joy is Sasha, his ultra-customized semi. He’s customized everything about the truck, from the police scanner in his radio, to the heavy armor plating of his trailer, to the massive, personally customized engine under the hood. Some other modifications include puncture-resistant tires, the electrified skin of the trailer, and a number of traditional chase movie options. Oil slicks, caltrops, smokescreens, things like that.
One other piece of equipment is a high-powered handgun stored in the glove box of his truck, for those situations when things get a little hairy.

Personality:
“Crazy” Jim is not actually crazy, though there are some to debate that. He enjoys risks and loves the thrill of speed. Of course, he’s rational enough to realize when those things put his current job in danger. He’s quiet and withdrawn, rather businesslike, though if you can get him to start, he’ll tell you the craziest stories you’ve ever heard. Tales of government agencies and experiments, conspiracies and cover-ups.

Backstory:
Jim was born in the south, though he doesn’t really talk much about his childhood. To those who know him, it would seem his life started in the army. The truth is he doesn’t speak of his childhood because he was an orphan. He grew up in a terrible orphanage and as soon as he was old enough, he joined the army. That was where what could be called a ‘life’ started.

He served in the army for ten years, getting very good at his job. He was a transporter, delivering weapons, ammo, supplies, and heavy equipment to the front lines though dangerous territory. He earned a number of awards for skill and bravery in performing his tasks. Eventually, he was recruited from the army into a secretive branch known as the Post Office. That’s what the cover was, at least. They were the ones you called when it absolutely HAD to get there. Maximum security. Top secret. Those two never go together. Since you couldn’t just drive whatever it was in a camouflage convoy or a limo full of black suits and expect it to go unnoticed, they went the other way, hiding the materials in plain sight.

Jim drove for the Post Office for another ten years, a good soldier, transporting whatever was asked of him and asking no questions. But on one long trip, he glimpsed into the back, thinking he heard something loose. What he found was indeed an ‘experimental organism’ like they told him, but they had failed to elaborate that, strapped down in his trailer, was a fifteen-foot-tall woman. And what a woman at that! She was beautiful! He quickly untied her and she told him her story. She was a small-town beauty queen. When she was offered a career in modeling in the big city, she took it. But they took her, instead. Then ensued the usual for this sort of story, experimentation, parents given a tragic accident story, and finally culminated in her being loaded into this truck to be moved to a research station in the desert.

Jim may have been a good soldier, but this offended every one of his sensibilities as a man. He tore the tracker units out of his truck and drove for days, vanishing into the myriad interstates and rest stops, hiding in plain sight. Eventually, once the heat was off, he and Zoe (that was her name) drove into the desert, found a nice, secluded canyon and set up something that resembled a home for the two of them.

Now, Jim drives mercenary, transporting the exotic, the dangerous, the illegal and the important to whoever can pay for it. The Post Office still hunts him, trying to catch his bride and bring Jim in, but he’s ready for them, and he‘s not giving up without a fight.

Desires:
Jim just wants to live a quiet life in the Canyon with Zoe. But he can’t quit working, he needs to make money to put food on the table and gas in the tank. So, he lives’ the trucker’s life, only able to see his dear wife every few weeks.

Fears:
Jim’s main fear is that he’ll pull into the canyon someday and he’ll just find Zoe gone. Or, even worse, he’ll lead the Post Office back to the canyon and it’ll be his fault.

Secret:
Jim’s got a lot of secrets, including his work for the Post Office, the fact that he’s married to a fifteen-foot blond bombshell, the location of the canyon…

#2 Isgrigg Blackhand

| November 4, 2010 | 1 Comment

World:
Isgrigg’s tale takes place in a world in the midst of a magical revolution, where magic is no longer in the hands of the elite mages, but is widespread. Sentient constructs labor in vast arcane factories, and towers climb miles into the sky, their dizzying heights supported by levitation magic. This is the world where you find Sharn, the city of towers. It is a divided city. The uppermost reaches are dizzying displays of glass and crystal, magical airships and floating ballrooms. The lower  one goes, however, the cheaper, the dirtier, and the worse life is.

Species:
Isgrigg is a Halfling, a humanoid standing about three feet tall. In the beginning, they were proud warriors, nomads of the plains. They followed the herds of dinosaurs that they hunted. But as magic and progress came along, the race divided. Those who would continue to live the same lives as they always had, and those that would instead turn to the cities, living among the other races.

Appearance:
Isgrigg stands about three feet tall. He has a lean, wiry frame, and is almost always covered in black, clinging soot from his job as a chimney cleaner. His family have been chimney sweeps for generations, their last name being a reference to the family profession. He has red hair naturally, but the soot of the years has built up, staining his hair coal-black. Despite his usual state of filth, he’s almost always smiling. When he’s working for the academy, he wears a full black bodysuit that covers everything below his nose.

Equipment:
Isgrigg, usually, carries nothing more than his sweep-broom and the clothes on his back. However, in his pocket he carries a whistle which he can use to call his companion, Corrax the soot gryph. Soot gryphs are a small species of gryphon, only slightly shorter than Isgrigg at the shoulder. His fore-half is that of a raven, while his rear is that of a panther. Corrax has been partnered with Isgrigg since he came of age.
But, when on his true job, Isgrigg carries a wide array of tools. Lock picks, flasks of acid, a few magical items… All the tools a master thief needs.

Personality:
Isgrigg is friendly and personable, as well as being surprisingly intelligent for a chimney sweep. He’s got a great many acquaintances among the lower levels of Sharn, though nobody seems to be really close to him. At the academy, he is practical and direct, saying very little.

Backstory:
Isgrigg was born to the Blackhand clan and immediately brought into their secret true profession. The Blackhands are, on the surface, chimney sweeps. Some of the best in the lower city. But the real way the clan makes money is with their second business. The blackhands are master theives. For generations, the blackhands have been stealing priceless relics, works of art, and, of course, the usual gold and jewels. They have become masters of the craft, training each successive generation everything. When they come of age, the blackhands are partnered with soot gryphs, which help them with both of their traditional jobs. The partnering has become traditional, the ceremony of acquiring the egg requires a young blackhand to sneak into an aerie of the gryphs and escape alive with the egg. Isgrigg was the first in several generations to escape the aerie without even being noticed.

Isgrigg was soon making a name for himself. The thievery became at first a game, then an art. Soon, he was performing robberies on only the rarest and most valuable artifacts and prizes. When the Morgrave university came into the possession of the fabled Shell of Deception, Isgrigg couldn’t resist. He went for it, and he messed up. The security forces of the arcane university had him under so many binding and holding spells he couldn’t even sneeze. He cursed himself all night, knowing he and Corrax were going to jail. But, when morning came, the headmistress of the academy came to him and instead of offering him up to the court, they offered him a job. A dangerous job, but one that paid well.

The academy was struggling. It was a young academy. It had neither the vast libraries of it’s competition, nor the long traditions. But they did have an advantage they could press. The academy had a surprisingly large collection of artifacts and magical items, and they intended to make use of that. Within an hour, they had affixed the unlucky thief with a magical compulsion to fulfill his agreement and he was officially the first member of the academy’s ‘Acquisitions Department’ A slightly less-than-legal branch of the college that was in charge of getting new items to add to their collections.

Desires:
Isgrigg desires the ultimate heist. He has no idea what that would be, but he’s always seeking to pull off riskier and riskier jobs. He loves the danger. His father always told him that pride was a dangerous thing for a thief. The perfect crime will drive a proud thief mad because, for it to remain the perfect crime, nobody can even know it was committed. However, Isgrigg is addicted to the thrill of the dangerous heists.

Fears:
Isgrigg fears very little, his father’s training made sure of that. However, he does fear being uncovered. If his true identity was uncovered, the Blackhands would be hunted down and the entire family would be thrown in prison.

Secret:
Isgrigg’s secret is his name. He always goes by a pseudonym at the academy, and he keeps his lives as separate as possible.

#1 Gerard (Jerry) Lynch

| November 1, 2010 | 0 Comments

World:
In the not-very-distant future, the human race is on the run from an extra-planar invasion force. About ten years ago, the demons broke through from their own universe to our own. Technically, they’re not ‘demons’, but they bear enough superficial similarities that a majority of the remaining humans simply call them that. They are, technically a single race. Or, rather, were a single race. They diverged evolutionarily to fulfill specific niches on their impossibly harsh home-world, forming a number of castes that have learned to work together to further their current goal of subjecting the human race. The demons are ridiculously evolved. The harsh environment of their home-world and the constant infighting of the castes has pushed the demons into an evolutionary arms race with one another, creating the incredibly powerful monsters that now rampage. The demons, however, have a weakness. Ultraviolet light is extremely damaging to them. Unfortunately, their skins are strong enough to withstand the light for short time, or long periods of low exposure. A high-powered UV lamp will burn them almost immediately, but the damage will be skin-deep without exposing them for upwards of thirty seconds for the smallest, ranging up to three minutes for some of the bigger ones. The solution to this is that once the skin is pierced, the UV radiation can be applied to the more sensitive flesh, reducing the demons’ affected tissues to their carbon base. The resistance continues to fight the demons, though the demons have, so far, been successful and taking out resistance groups that grow large enough to pose a threat.

Species:
Modded human. Before the demonic invasion, humankind had grown bored. One of the most popular trends was gene-modding, a practice that involved altering one’s genetic structure to make yourself better or more interesting in some way. Most are superficial things, altering the color of one’s hair or eyes, though some go more in-depth. Gerard got three main modifications. One was a external mod that gave him his signature pink hair. Another was more in depth, altering his bone structures to start building carbon deposits, reinforcing themselves. The third involved getting a tiny processor wired into his brain, then co-opting the nerves that ran to his fingernails and replacing the nails altogether with highly conductive silver plates. This allowed him to jam his fingernails into any USB port to interface directly with the computer. Using this allowed him to forgo using keyboards and communicate his thoughts directly to the computer.

Appearance:
Gerard is an extremely toned not-quite-muscular man, about 26 years old. His pink hair is trimmed into a military buzz cut and his face is lean. He has gray eyes, a common side effect of the gene-modding, and his fingernails are metallic silver. His nose is slightly crooked, an incorrect heal from before the invasion. He used to have a number of facial peircings, though they’ve healed over since he stopped wearing them.

Equipment:
Gerard’s prize piece of gear is Behrtgar, his Trident-class cavalry vehicle. It resembles a motorcycle to a degree,  mostly in it’s narrowness and low profile shape. It has eight wheels, two next to each other on each of four struts that can raise or lower the vehicle‘s body or spread out to resist rollovers. A skilled rider can use the struts to jump his vehicle over short obstacles, or to ‘pounce‘ into combat. based on the situation . The wheels are heavily reinforced and puncture-resistant, allowing the trident cavalry vehicle to drive over virtually any surface without worrying about punctures. A lucky blow for a demon could still take out a tire, however, which is why there are two on each strut. The entire top of the vehicle is a streamlined, armored shell that protects the driver, who lays on his stomach, his body about level with the top of the wheels. It folds up to allow the rider to enter and exit the vehicle. The main weapon of the trident-class cavalry vehicle is it’s signature trident, a trio of penetrator lances that retract into the undercarriage when not in use. When deployed, the lances jut forward past the wheels a good four feet. Each lance is an eight-foot spear of reinforced steel with a hardened tip. The first foot of the lance is marked by four separate inch-wide bands of clear reinforced glass. When the tip is fully embedded in a target, a UV flash bulb goes off at the base of the lance, delivering massive amounts of UV radiation deep into the demon’s vulnerable flesh. A direct hit with the trident is a sure kill on most demons, though some of the largest demons commonly seen will survive it. On titan-class demons or larger, two or three tridents working in tandem are usually enough to bring them down. The Trident is also equipped with ten high-powered UV lamps. Four forward mounted, two mounted sideways, two vertical and two rear-facing. The Trident is also equipped with twin grappling spike launchers which are each capable of hauling the trident and rider vertically without support. Gerard’s is modified with a interface port that allows him to control the vehicle’s features as though they were an extension of his own body.

The second piece of equipment he most treasures is his Longshot rifle, a high-powered long-range rifle equipped with a scope and laser sight. The Longshot fires illuminator rounds, which function much like the penetrator lances, although significantly weaker. The transparent round penetrates the demon’s UV-resistant hide and emits a UV flash that deals massive internal damage to the demons. The rifle allows Gerard to take care of long-range targets and flying foes, while the trident’s lances deliver devastating melee damage to large, heavily armored foes.

Some other pieces of gear include a heavy pistol that fires illuminator rounds. It also has a mounted full-spectrum flashlight. The pistol is mostly used for close-range combat, taking out smaller, faster demons than he can hit with his lances. He also carries with him a first-aid kit, some UV flash-bang grenades, and some personal body armor, including a steel-plated motorcycle helmet, a keeled tempered steel breastplate over a ceramic-and-kevlar scale vest.

Personality:
Gerard was something of a wild child before the invasion. Very anti-authority and out to do his own thing. Since the invasion, the resistance has taken care of him. He still retains a highly independent outlook on how to do things, but he has developed a healthy respect for the rules and those in charge. Mostly, he simply realizes that if he was trying to take on the demons alone, he’d be long-dead, but there’s a respect in there buried under his backtalk and bravado. He knows he’s not a leader, he’s just a very effective follower.

Backstory:

Gerard was born to an upper-middle class family in the suburbs of Chicago. At a young age, he was much like the other kids. However, the teenage years came early two him, and thirteen-year-old Gerard quickly became ‘Jerry’. He started listening to louder and more violent music, screaming at his parents and defying authority in every method available to a thirteen-year-old suburbanite. He got Gene-modded on his fifteenth birthday, gaining both his signature pink locks and the extremely useful silver nails and microprocessor. By the time of the invasion, he was starting his own rock band.

The invasion was incredibly fast. It was on the news on Monday and by Friday only the major cities were safe anymore. The daytime was okay, because the sunlight burned the demons, but once night fell, you could hear the firefights in the streets. Jerry was in a shelter after the initial air-raids of the demon armies made the suburbs unlivable.

He and his buddies were, of course, not pleased by the demons’ invasion and, despite the warnings of the military and national guard telling them to stay inside at night, Jerry joined into a small mob of angry citizens, eager to bust open some demon skulls. They didn’t know yet just how powerful the demons could be if you weren’t prepared. When they encountered a Fiend-class demon, the mob attacked with pipes, knives, and molotovs. The demon seemed to take no notice of their attacks as he tore through the ranks of them like a lawnmower. Dozens died within seconds of engaging the demon. Jerry himself caught a almost-mortal wound in the process. The military managed to take out the demon before it could finish the job, thankfully, and Jerry managed to get treatment.

Once he was better, the invasion had pretty much wiped out the formal military presence. He joined the resistance quickly, eager to prove himself against the demons. Over the next ten years, he rose through the ranks of the resistance, earning himself the status required to have all the custom equipment he wanted.

Desires:
Gerard’s desires are pretty simple on the surface. He wants to see the demons removed from the planet and see Chicago back to it’s former self. However, deeper down, Gerard secretly enjoys this life. He’s respected, he makes a difference, and deep down, killing demons satisfies some urge deep inside, a warrior’s drive.

Fears:
Gerard has been serving the resistance for a long time and has seen a great many demons. But he’s heard tales that the demons he sees  are just the tip of the iceberg. Tales that tell of massive subterranean demon cities. Tales of what lies on the other side of the demon’s portal, demons too large to even fit through. Tales of strange devices being created by the demons, devices made to blot out the sun, or turn the earth into a caricature of their home-world.

Secret:

Gerard’s secret is that, sometimes, he realizes how much he likes the war and, in the deepest portions of his subconscious, wants it to keep going. If the war ends, he goes back to being a crazy punk with no future. All he knows how to do is fight.