Name: Vekyzz
Titles: None.
Aliases: In the shady business it has become more common to simply ask for 'Annihilus' if his services are desired.
Age: 34
Race/Ethnicty: Tiefling
Continent of Origin: High Mist
Gender: Male
Class/Subclass: Rogue | Gunslinger
Strength: 20
Dexterity: 7
Constitution: 19
Intelligence: 13
Wisdom: 10
Charisma: 6
Height: 6'10"
Weight: 350 lbs
Appearance Description: Even by Tiefling standards Vekyzz is not exactly the smallest person around to say the least, but still his body gives the impression that it is actually useful bulk resulting from years of constant use and not some hastily assembled, less efficient mass. Aside from this very first impression he features the typcial traits of his kind, primarily a pair of bony extrusions from his forehead that (at least so far) are still in pristine condition and the dark, rather colorless complexion of his skin. His eyes are striking, his nose pointy and his almost black hair neatly arranged in a smaller number of strings having the thickness of a finger. Vekyzz does not bear any scars or other signs of combat or progressed aging, but this only helps people wonder how he managed to lose the fourth and fifth finger of his left hand. Red paint normally is not a part of his face, but if he feels the need for making a more fierce impression towards his victims he also doesn't refrain from using it.
Day To Day Attire: Vekyzz doesn't care much about what kind of clothing he wears in the public as long as it is halfway clean, doesn't smell right up to the skies above, feels comfortable given the current temperature and, as an added bonus point, even fits his size. He dresses cheaply which limits himself to leather boots, woolen shirts and trousers held together by either a simple girdle or even just as much as a thin rope. Where he really leaves coins on the counter is his work gear, but it would be pretty stupid to wear this in the open.
Strengths:- He has a very creative mind capable of improvisation, invention and out of the box thinking.
- There is a wide field between 'doing nothing' and 'killing your enemy'. He is good at estimating the impact of his physical actions and has an above-average degree of knowledge about a humanoid's physiology. Merely temporarily disabling an enemy in order to subject him to subsequent torture is possible, but he also is a comparably good choice when it comes to deciding whether it is safe to pull out that broken arrow out of a companion's leg or not.
- He is capable of taking as much of a beating as he can deal.
Weaknesses:- Intimidation is a good thing, but only as long as long as you want the person you're talking with to be intimidated. Vekyzz' general appearance more often than not already emanates an aura of being potentially harmful even before he starts talking and, frankly, afterwards he lacks the skill necessary to make you think otherwise soon. Some people approve this, but most do not.
- He knows which side of a sword to grab, but he doesn't know how to handle this and many other 'traditional' weapons. This also means that he doesn't know very well how to defend himself against those should the situation arise that he is close to an enemy wearing such. He usually tries to check this out before closing in.
- His sheer size and weight can cause trouble other people might not face.
Cunning * Harsh * Tenacious * Loyal * Bold
Sexuality: Straight
Relationship Status: Single
Personality: Vekyzz is not the kind of guy who takes most things for granted. The firm belief that much more secrets still wait to be uncovered than have already been revealed is what keeps his curiosity going, the latter probably being the reason why he left his Tiefling homelands in the first place. He's a bit of a dreamer, often silently imagining what, maybe, might be possible if just enough effort was made and then a little depressed when he comes to the conclusion that the current society won't do it. However he still has to make a very mundane living and that's where, at least for outside observers, his open-mindedness takes a rather bizarre, malicious turn: War is everywhere and there's no feasible way to stop it. It is not even certain if
not killing each other from time to time is better for the overall, long-term development after all. Being a soldier, a devoted killer under the command of some more or less arbitrarily chosen ruler is a socially well respected business, so why should being an assassin not be the same ? Of course he is clever enough not to mention this opinion in the public, but it is his inner justification for what he is doing.
This should not be confused with mindless obedience. A soldier must obey to commands or face disciplinary measures, as a freelancing killer he has some freedom to decline, ask more questions or even do own investigations behind the scene. He doesn't kill merely for the sake of killing: It is a job, not a fetish. Once having convinced himself about doing the right thing he neither gives up easily nor holds back when it comes to brutal measures. Reliability is a virtue and this not only holds true for clients, but also for friends. Friends are far more than just 'useful' as Vekyzz can't separate himself from the time to time need to just sit, talk, drink, enjoy and maybe play a game or two. Unfortunately his work and the caution necessary have left him with only very few people whom he truly considers friends. It is very difficult to become one of those, but once reaching that status one can rest assured that he'll be loyal.
Vekyzz is an experimenter who could not be stopped by dangerous encounters with his own creations. If there is free time and spare coin he likes working on his stuff or creating new items even if they are potentially dangerous not only for their intended recipients. This goes as far as that he often finds it difficult to keep his mouth shut when he sees something and deems it in dire need of improvement, be it annoying or not. When not revolving around technical stuff though he is a bit on the less talkative side of things, sometimes even the silent observer who gives everyone the feeling of staring at them. Well... he sometimes does that indeed. Most victims only remember when and why he scrutinized them from a passer-by point of view when it is too late for them.
Habits:- Rubbing his nose or letting his fingers slide along the ridges on his face.
- Inhaling the smell of food served before digging in.
- Fiddling around with random items that happen to lie nearby when he feels bored or is just waiting for something to happen.
Hobbies:- Physical exercise
- (Non magic) tinkering
- Painting -- not only on his face, but for real. Not that he'd excel at it though.
Fears:- Becoming the target of one of his 'colleagues'.
- Drowning: Things are okay as long as he can pretty much rule out the possibility of this happening, but he happily retreats from taking a bath in the ocean or diving through that flooded cave if possible.
- Once becoming an old man whose thread of life refuses to snap despite already being crippled.
Likes:- Art
- Wealth
- Straightforwardness
- Journeying
- Experiments
- Studies
Dislikes:- Overcrowded places
- Cold
- Orders
- Others doing the exact same thing he does. It always invokes that feeling of competition.
- Excessive smalltalk
- Many kinds of alcoholic beverages.
- Wrestling: He has obvious difficulties dealing with the faster and smaller kind of combatants or those who wear sharp weapons, but is very proficient at beating the remainder in a controlled manner. Choking is a time-consuming, but very silent, and, given his strength, quite reliable way of disabling or killing somebody. Unlike a dagger or an arrow it doesn't even shed any blood. This is more than just the raw appliance of force.
- Precise shooting: Handy, advanced optics for gunpowder-driven devices don't exist yet, but he knows how to account for the wear and tear of his weaponry, for gravity and wind and how to aim properly. It's not sniping, but probably as close as one can get to it given the technical limitations.
- Riding: Back in his homeland Vekyzz has learned how to travel on the backs of the Bearded Wraiths that are native to the region instead of just delaying their desire to eat him, but getting one of those vicious lizards off the continent and somehow socially accepted elsewhere was way too much of an obstacle. Therefore he has endured the need to adapt and to learn how to ride horses. He's not very good at it, but he can hold himself on top of one and even make them go into a desired direction.
- Mechanics: Usually more associated with dwarves or gnomes it came only natural to Vekyzz to delve into the depths of this kind of science in order to create wonderous things himself. It is magic, just without... magic.
- Drawing: It's a recreational hobby and such is the quality of the outcome, but he has become better at it over the recent years.
- Athletics: Sometimes one needs to climb, someone one needs to run and sometimes one needs to jump downstairs for an extra speedup.
- Alchemy: Being on the borderline between magic and mundane chemistry Vekyzz has learned how to address his need of certain substances himself. He can create gunpowder or similar generic explosives, lubricants for his devices, anti-corrosives, acids and other technical substances and, at least to some degree, collect the necessary ingredients himself should he encounter them in the wilderness. Mixing stuff inteded to be consumed by living beings is not part of this.
Possessions Generally On Person:
- 'Civilian' clothing: A woolen shirt and trousers held together by a simple leather girdle.
- Leather boots: Quite a bit worn, but still a reliable and obligatory part around his feet.
- Coin pouch: Enough reserves to buy food and water for a day or two.
- Water flask: Vekyzz' throat has a tendency to become dry...
Weapons:
- Long-barreled rifle: Created by himself, this contraption is dead slow to reload, quite big and heavy and loud as hell, but provides a lot of one-shot firepower, range and accuracy.
- Bear trap: Simple but reliable for creating an ambush. One injured horse or man can force an entire caravan to stop for a bit, making them a better target.
- Caltrops: A small bag filled with caltrops and a small dispenser charge inside that should explode on impact. Not enough to seriously hurt anybody, unless of course they start moving afterwards and don't wear armored boots. Unlike the bear trap this obviously can't be set up in advance and claimed to be an accident afterwards, but it also can't be missed by sheer chance.
- Blowpipe: This thing clearly lacks the range and power of a rifle or crossbow, but unlike the former it is much quieter and unlike the latter it can be hidden excellently. With it comes a small number of darts.
Armor:
- Black leather west: Outfitted with a large number of pockets all over the place it is highly optimized for storage of and easy access to all the items he might need in action. The material used for this is black, well maintained and high quality leather. It does only have limited protective properties.
- Plated gloves: Handling unstable alchemic ingredients and powerful guns has left him with two fingers less before getting these, even though they were not the main cause. These gloves serve excellently as a precautionary measure against accidents.
- Heavy belt: This one has the benefit of being outfitted with eyelets in order to allow its wearer to thread a climbing rope through it.
- Light cloak: It not only serves as an additional means of protecting against cold, but also greatly helps to hide his horns and equipment worn underneath, thereby protecting his identity in case he's spotted from further away while accessing/leaving a place.
Pack Contents:
- Lockpicks: Self-explanatory.
- Small crowbar: Even in a world without headcrabs this item is still useful for opening doors that have bars instead of locks.
- Food rations: A mixture of bread, salt meat and other edible stuff that doesn't perish all too quickly.
- Extended water supply: Drinking is more important than eating. Used conservatively this should last for two days.
- Rope with grapple: This is going to be needed for more efficient climbing. It is meant to be thrown, not launched via crossbow or other means.
Magical Items: None.
Potions:A small satchel of gunpowder.
Creation Materials:
- Set of mechanical tools: A technician's dream come true in the form of pincers, hammers and a few other small-scale items intended for messing around with metal, wood, leather and stone.
- Mortar and pestle: For alchemistic purposes.
- A few flasks and glass vials: For alchemistic purposes.
History: Vekyzz was born in the Tiefling's homeland of Babel, a rather small village near the Pillar City of Syddal to be precise. The so far only child of his father
Andron and his mother
Indoris was born into a family of rather low ranking nobles. As such he did not need to worry much about materialistic concerns, but also learnt from early on that Tiefling society revolves much around politics. Politics more often than not are regarded as an investment of one's funds, so being stuck in a comparative lack of those also meant not having much influence. He fared considerably better than the average of his contemporaries, but still faced much more the restrictive side of his environment than that of liberty.
The young male developed quite rapidly physically, soon surpassing his childhood friends and thus appearing older than he actually was. Not yet fit for military service, Vekyzz still became eligible for the regular hunting parties that were close to obligatory for those sufficiently fit in the region around Syddal. Not strictly ordered by the Caliph of the time his strong desire still was well known: People should be kept halfway trained and ready for the harsh climate they're in. The pressure was much too high for openly denying this, so Vekyzz followed suit.
The party didn't bother going the long way around the mountains, but instead ventured directly to the northeast over them. However borders were much less clear in this kind of rugged terrain, causing them to unintentionally crossing the line into the gnomish territory of Koponbect. Except for a small mining colony there luckily was not much of a confrontation, but for the first time Vekyzz saw something else than his own homeland -- and it would prove to be yet another nail for the coffin he would put his heritage into. He returned from the trip mesmerized by what little bits of technology he had been able to see and, while he had not been able to actually talk to any of the gnomes for long, he had gained some knowledge about how different a culture could be.
Magic was something quite strictly controlled for fear of the Dread God, but technology was less of a delicate matter though not entirely without debate. Some day he learned the meaning of 'less can be more' the hard way when, in his abscence, his stockpile suffered from self-ignition and subsequent explosion. Even in other regions of the world accidentally blowing up part of an entire building would have caused trouble, but for him consequences were certain. In a quite public and no less cruel 'ceremony' his two missing fingers were crushed and cut and in his pain Vekyzz internally already separated from Babel.
He waited it out though until it was time for his pilgrimage as he saw this as the best opportunity. To cut things short he never arrived at the last station of his journey, Azeroth. Outfitted with as much support as his parents could provide, he beat his way to the east coast of High Mist and aboard a ship he was rather certain wouldn't turn around just for handing him over to the Wayward. Starting there he had to learn how to remain undercover, and he had to do even more so once the ship did not land in the tiefling exclave of Saldona, but in a port of the Union. Knowing that in The Dales he was even more easy to spot and pick out by any Wayward persecutors happening to roam around, he decided to stay underground even if it meant that he had to start stealing. Staying alive and well was simply more important than doing what most other people would deem 'honest' work.
The first person he actually killed was one of those Wayward persecutors. It was an act both out of fear and out of hatred, but nontheless at this point Vekyzz noticed that causing someone else's death not really had much of a psychological impact upon him for as long as he was convinced about doing the right thing. So why not make a business out of it ? It wasn't worse than what the Tieflings in his homeland did, but certainly was better for himself.
Expertise grew rapidly, but not everything was perfect. Roughly one year ago he happened to break into a warehouse of the North Astorian Trading Company and get caught by a stroke of bad luck. Yet the local administrator he subsequently was confronted with was a clever man, realizing that someone who has managed to beat next to all existing security precautions in the area might actually be more useful to the company alive than rotting away in a prison. Getting Vekyzz' attention and loyalty wasn't that difficult after all as there still was problem very high up the man's priority list that could be solved utilizing the company's massive influence: the Wayward. As long as the company, at least officially, had no idea about how their new employee had gotten to his extensive knowledge everything was fine for them and as long as the Wayward back in High mist would not reconsider the issue with Vekyzz a third time everything was fine for him as well.
Character Quote: "I don't know what you are talking about!"
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