Name: Jaak Byron
Age: mid-twenty
Race: Human
Hair Color: Brown
Eye Color: Dark green
Height: 6’6”
Weight: 295 lb
Occupation: Monster Hunter
Personality:
Even though Jaak is gruff and hard-as-nails, he’s rarely unfriendly – at least not on purpose. The man is direct, doesn’t put anything in between and is usually very down to business. However, his demeanor often comes out as rude, if not insulting. Jaak has neither the understanding for social etiquette, nor been told proper manners for more formal situations. His rather bestial nature might seem repulsing, if not downright scary, to a lot of people. However, only a fool would fail to recognize his skills in other areas and put them to use. Jaak, on the other hand, doesn’t take too lightly on people mistaking his lack of social finesse for stupidity. Even though he’s happy to undertake an odd job now and then, he’s just as happy to teach someone a lesson for acting demeaning.
Appearance:
Jaak is without a doubt an intimidating person to look upon. Even without his formidable size, his arsenal of weapons alone would be enough to scare just about anyone – and he looks like he’s more than capable of using his collection of weaponry. The man is large and sturdy, easily capable of lifting a man in each of his fists. He sports a worn, but durable armor of metal scales and reinforced leather. Several leather straps attached to the armor keeps his many weapons in place and easily accessible. On his back is a shield. When travelling, he usually dons a travelling cloak, and often wears his helmet as well. When it is off, his young but stern face is visible, and seems not too friendly with its rugged look. His deep green eyes are weary of the surroundings, always alert. His brown hair is rarely longer than a little above his shoulders, and he usually straps it when wearing a helmet to keep it from his eyes. While he often has stubs of facial hair, Jaak rarely grows a beard. The man undoubtedly has several scars, but by luck or skill none visible.
Skills:
Advanced Armsmaster – Jaak isn’t so much a master as he’s simply good at using whatever is at hand for killing. He’s had extensive training, and any object is –and given his profession should – be a potential deadly weapon in his hands. Paramount to his own survival is knowing which weapon to use for what job.
Advanced Brawler – Also paramount is the ability not to use weapons. While grace probably wouldn’t cover Jaak’s unarmed combat skills, efficiency and experience would. Gripping throats with each fist, pummeling at a foe, grappling a target or bull-rushing shoulder first into a group of combatants, Jaak knows how to put size and strength to use.
Skilled Defense – The same as with his brawling, Jaak’s defensive skills doesn’t rely on grace and fancy dodges. Nevertheless, the man is still quick on his feet and skilled enough to dodge and parry blows as well as concentrate despite distractions.
Skilled Marksman – Being a woodsman and hunter of prey both natural and unnatural, Jaak is a fair shot with a bow or crossbow, as well as with thrown weapons. He’s no master shot, but more capable than most regular marksmen.
Very Stealthy – Sneaking through any environment is something Jaak has learned to do since he was a little boy. He’s ssomewhat worse at this in cities.
Natural Athlete – Jaak is capable and good at carrying heavy loads, running or swimming long distances, as well as climbing and jumping.
Acute Awareness – Due to his training in the wilds and close bond to his own bestial nature, Jaak’s trained senses are sharp as any predator. He knows how to spot hidden things and beings, followers, how to discern noise from ambient sounds and to best use weather and environment to be able to discover things.
Good Survivalist – Jaak has lived in the outdoors almost his whole life and learned to live of the land. He knows how to hunt, cook, navigate, tie knots, and more of the necessary skills to outdoor survival. He also knows how to patch himself up after a fight.
Skilled Tracker – Jaak is a good hunter and can shadow his prey for lengths of time. He’s somewhat worse at this in cities.
Decent Monster Lore – While he is a monster hunter, Jaak is far from an expert when it comes to knowledge about monsters. He knows a few secrets most people don’t, but often has to combine his knowledge with what he observes to figure out weaknesses or what he’s dealing with. A scholar might have more insight about a beast, but Jaak would know best how to bring it down.
Rudimentary Magical Lore – Jaak has, through experience, learned a bit about rituals and with it the very basic rules and underlying principles of magic. He’s not able to identify spells or effects, by far, but would at the very least, given evidence, be able to discern if magic is used.
Decent Animal Ken – Jaak is capable of training animals, given time. Rearing a horse or teaching a dog a trick, or similar, is no problem, while training a hawk would take more time and effort at this skill level.
Good Rider – Jaak has travelled a lot, often on horseback. He can easily steer a horse with only his legs if need be, but is no trick rider.
Skilled Bowyer – Being able to make and repair bows and arrows are essential to a hunter. This skill also covers general woodworking and crafting, but doesn’t make Jaak a carpenter.
Skilled Leatherworker – From his hunting, Jaak not only knows how to skin and preserve hides, but also make useful items out of them, although he usually only put his skills to use for repair purposes.
Novice Smith – Jaak wouldn’t know nearly enough to craft a suit of armor or even a sword, or it would at least take a lot of time, but he knows more than enough to repair his own weapons and armor.
Bad literacy – Although Jaak can speak several languages, he knows only a few written words in most of them, ranging from a handful in Demonic, to maybe a few hundred in Elven. The noteable exception being Tradespeak, of which he can read enough to get by – at least for his profession. His written Tradespeak is slightly worse than his reading. They say the pen is mightier than the sword; Jaak disagrees. [Tradespeak, decent Elven and Dwarven, rudimentary phrases and text in several monstrous tongues]
Terrible etiquette – Although polite and frank, in a manner of speaking, Jaak wouldn’t know anything about the finer arts of society or politics. Diplomacy and intrigue is not his arena. Cloaks and daggers are for others to concern themselves with.
Abilities:
Child of the Wild – Through the rituals, Jaak can feel the strength of the wilds, the strength of the nature and beasts around him, the strength becoming his, and he can feel it grow stronger with each passing year. Jaak has a keen understanding of the outdoors and nature, as well as the ability to manifest aspects of nature and beast in himself. But even though Jaak is more at home outdoors than a child is in its mother’s womb, his devotion has cost him much in the ways of understanding how to be a simple human. Long years in the wilds have probably robbed him of learning even the simplest academic or artistic knowledge. Only secondary to his training was his learning how to read and write, and in social situations that demands certain finesse, he’s all but lost. Be it his bond to nature or his personal nature, Jaak is uncomfortable in those situations and large cities, and at times tend to dislike larger, too. Just as an animal needs time to adjust to civilization, so it would seem, does he. This doesn’t necessarily render him unable to function, but can take its toll on some level or another or create potentially difficult or dangerous situations in other arenas than the ones he’s more at home in.
[1.5x Perception. Enables him, given time and knowledge, to recreate and undertake new rituals. In addition, this ability isn’t as much an ability in itself, as it is grounds for other abilities as well as skills. As such it’s meant as a ways of boosting situations concerning general awareness and survival, while penalizing certain social or civil situations. It’s a possible way for others to coach setting, NPC, PC and companion reactions and behavior as appropriate.]
Magical Resistance – While Jaak’s abilities primarily are thought to flow from bonds with nature and beast, the ancient rituals that enables them stem rather from strange and ancient magic. This magic awakens several natural and supernatural abilities within a subject, but most importantly it awakens a resistance to magic. At its most basic, this resistance gives a weak protection against the four principal nature elements; fire, air, water and earth.
[5% protection vs fire/air/water/earth]
Bear’s Endurance – Jaak has increased endurance, closing that of a bear. Concerning himself mostly with direct battles, it was only natural that an ability such as this would manifest itself early. While Jaak is large and formidable to begin with, this ability makes him about half again as strong and durable as a man his size.
[1.5x endurance of a man his size]
Equipment:
2 Hunting knives – Jaak has two finely crafted steel hunting knives, one in his boot, and the other at his shoulder. In addition to being excellent for skinning animals, they are also quite effective secondary weapons or as thrown weaponry.
1 Worn broadsword – Probably Jaak’s primary weapon, but even he isn’t sure why he favors it. The steel blade looks quite worn, but even so it retains strength from once being mastercrafted and having its numerous dents sharpened. The blade is also slightly broader and heavier than normal.
2 Hand axes – These simple looking steel axes are invaluable to a woodsman and hunter. They are quite well made, chop wood and bones equally well, and can be thrown if necessary. He has one on his back, and the other in his belt.
1 War mace – Strapped to his belt, Jaak has a massive, but balanced mace with eight heavy blades. Heavy steel to its core, the mace serves one purpose: To shatter and break shields or whatever is inside any armor, or simply crush what isn’t armored.
1 Crossbow – A sturdy, practical and powerful crossbow made of steel and yew components. In the past Jaak might have preferred bows, but has come to appreciate being able to fire his primary ranged weapon one handed if needed. The slightly longer reload time usually doesn’t matter as Jaak prefers to close in if possible, or stay at range if close combat is unfavorable.
Supply of bolts with various heads – Jaak has several types of bolts for different targets. He has bolts with round heads, flat heads, barbed heads and both vertical and horizontal blades for them.
Sturdy, reinforced round yew shield – Often, this is simply strapped to his back for added protection to both his person and weapons there. It does not have any insignia.
Reinforced leather and scale mail – While still being fairly light, this armor provides ample protection. It has a standard base of leather, with steel scales drawn over the torso, plating on the shoulders, a helmet, and studded and reinforced leather elsewhere.
Spiked gloves – The armor’s heavy gloves are deadly weapons in themselves.
Survival gear – Everything you would need. Rope, a grappling hook, dry rations, waterskin, a healing kit, cup, plate and cutlery, firestones, torches, some basic tools, spare bowstrings and leather straps, and more.
Trapmaking equipment – Although he has the tools enabling him to set up more complex traps in this kit, Jaak currently only has the necessary equipment to make snares, tripwires and similar traps.
Familiars:
None.
History:
His whole life, Jaak had been raised for one purpose, and one purpose alone: To hunt and protect. His father, Abden, had seen to it that his son would pick up the mantle and carry on the legacy he himself belonged to. Abden, as his father before him, was a member of a loosely organized group of monster hunters. What divided this group from other proclaimed hunters, however, were their natural apt to it. Through rituals and blood, its members were granted abilities far more potent than simple bounty hunters, rangers or their ilk.
It was, perhaps, not so much a calling as it also was a duty, but through the years, Jaak has come to accept and respect both aspects of it. While anyone could most certainly hunt a beast, only a few could do it with such perfection as the loose group Jaak’s father, and later Jaak, was a member of. No one was sure their calling was in their blood or in their rituals – or both, but they had a close tie with man and beast, nature and magic, which made them expert hunters. Hunters would travel the lands in search of threats. Simple monsters or bounties would do when you could, but the main occupation was always the beasts no one knew about until it was too late – rumors and fears, lurkers in the dark, ferocious monstrosities and abyssal abominations of every kind.
A good place, then, for Jaak’s father to take his son for his coming years of training would be the island realm of Coronè. Between the elves and rangers, the realm was deemed safe, if not completely defunct of political strife and uncertainty over the years. But Jaak’s father couldn’t care less about that – he was interested in the secluded wilderness, the peaking mountain ranges, vast forests, and the untold mysteries within.
The two settled deep in the forest, living between rangers, elves and outlaws. As if living deep in the wilds wasn’t enough, dodging the three groups added another level to Jaak’s training. Rangers mistaking Abden and Jaak for outlaws, or outlaws mistaking them for rangers were just as dangerous as any beast, animal or natural hazard. Abden feared that if the two of them could make a home there in secret, there were telling what other things that might be able to do so.
Days, weeks, months and eventually years went by in the forests and mountains of Coronè, his father teaching Jaak how to live in the wild and become one with the nature, to hunt, protect and care for – take and give. Jaak would eventually grow as big as his father, and enjoy the wilds with as much joy as him, too. But the years were no picnic. His father would teach him all about survival, and also all about fighting. At first they moved around a lot, getting acquainted with different terrains, but for the latter half or so of the long training, the two settled more permanently. That way it was easier for Abden to make and obtain the equipment needed for the extensive weapons training he would give his son. After a while, and only when Abden was confident in Jaak’s basic weapon abilities, would they actually hunt beasts.
Also part of the training, both while travelling and after having settled down, was the passing of Abden’s knowledge of monsters and beasts, and of the rituals. The rituals were performed at set periods during their long years in the wilderness. It was a tedious and long process, but it was necessary for Jaak to unlock the secrets and abilities that would help him in his calling and duty. The ancient rituals, enigmatic to both father and son as they might be, were something Abden knew and taught to the heart even though he had a book detailing both them and other lore. It would take years before Jaak was allowed to even look in that book, and then some years for him to learn how to read enough to understand what stood there. And even after Jaak’s training, Abden would keep the book. The rituals bonded Jaak with the wilderness, animals and beast, trees and soil. But it also bonded him with the moon and the stars, magic and the supernatural.
As the years went by, and boy grew into man, Jaak underwent the final ritual that would free him of his father’s mentorship. The ritual lasted one moon and a day, during which Jaak went away by himself with only a knife in a haze caused by the ritual. At its conclusion, he returned to the ritual site with a trophy – the head of a beast that had harassed a trade route. To this day, Jaak remember nothing of the month and a day.
After the ritual, and with a mix of delight and heavy heartedness in both father and son, Abden returned back to the mainland. Even though Jaak longed home, he knew his calling lay where he was – at least for now. There was always work to do, areas to watch, creatures to hunt and people to protect if one only looked careful enough into the shadows. And even when the shadows were void of fangs and bloodlust, Jaak could always occupy himself with other tasks fitting his abilities.
Submit Thread for Judgment
Originally Posted by 016573
(it's just that going through dozens of characters obviously isn't the best way to gauge power levels for a first-timer)
