JesseLowe/JebtzunDambu

Jebtzun Dambu

Description: Jebtzun appears a large man dressed in simple clothes of leather and wool, leaves and bark, as favored by the barbarians of the East. He usually wears his hearthstone bracers and has his razor claws strapped to his thighs. His face is broad and bearded, his hair rudely cut and brown. Green eyes of surprising brilliance catch the eyes of his prey, for he has the irises of a cat or a serpent. His body is weathered and scarred from long years in the wild. When hunting or going into battle, he often paints his face with stripes like a tiger.

Roleplaying Notes: Jeb models his life on that of the tiger, which he considers his totem beast. (It's a phase.) He delights in combat or the hunt, but often betrays his more pensive nature in the study of wild things or the magical arts. He rarely tries to hide his Exalted status, but -- having encountered a few zealous Dynasts -- knows when to try for stealth. (Preferably while stalking them.) He is learning the arts of patience and guile, and delights in a well-turned strategem. He is a stubborn hunter, and will not turn aside from an objective unless it would be unusually foolish to pursue it.

Caste: Twilight
Nature: Visionary

Attributes: Strength 4, Dexterity 5, Stamina 3, Charisma 3, Manipulation 2, Appearance 2, Perception 3, Intelligence 3, Wits 3
Abilities: *Athletics 3, *Crafts 4 (Architecture +1), Dodge 5, Endurance 1, Linguistics 3 (Forest-Tongue, Old Realm, Riverspeak, High Realm), *Lore 3, *Martial Arts 5, *Medicine 1, *Occult 4, *Presence 1, *Resistance 2, Stealth 2, *Survival 3
Note: * = Caste or Favored skill.
Virtues: Compassion 2, Conviction 3, Temperance 2, Valor 2
Backgrounds: Artifact 3, Manse 3, Mentor 1
Willpower: 7, Essence: 3, Essence Pool: 16 personal, 37 peripheral (7 peripheral committed)
Virtue Flaw: Inescapable Guilt (Conviction), Limit: 0

Anima:

• 1 mote: Cause Caste Mark to glow brightly for a scene.
• 1 mote: Cause anima to glow brightly enough to read by for a scene.
• 1 mote: Know the precise time of day for the rest of a scene.
• 5 motes: Last-ditch defense. Roll Essence; each success subtracts one health level from the final damage done by a single attack.

Flaws: Barbarian (1 bp), Unusual Appearance (cat's eyes) (1 bp)

Charms

• Martial Arts (Tiger Style)
  • Crimson Leaping Cat Technique
  • Striking Fury Claws Attack
  • Tiger Form
  • Raging Tiger Pounce
  • Spine-Shattering Bite
• Occult
  • Spirit-Detecting Glance
  • Spirit-Cutting Attack
  • Terrestrial Circle Sorcery
• Dodge
  • Reed in the Wind
  • Shadow Over Water

Spells

• Emerald Circle
  • Assume the Bestial Form
  • Demon of the First Circle (Jebtzun knows how to summon the perronele, the sesseljae, and the gilmyne)
  • Emerald Countermagic

Thaumaturgy: Art of Summoning (Beasts +1)
Equipment: Stone of Flexible Thinking (+1 to Investigate, Lore, and Occult, and reroll one Mental check per scene; regenerate 6 motes/hour), orichalcum hearthstone bracers, orichalcum razor claws, barbarian clothes.
Summoned Demons: 1 perronele (San; Vizier), 2 sesseljae (Er and Ar; both are Functionaries. Er resides in Jebtzun's stomach, Ar in his brain.)

Base Initiative: 8
Attacks
Razor Claws: Speed 8, Accuracy 12, Damage 12L, Defense 12, Rate 7
Clinch: Speed 2, Accuracy 10, Damage 6B piercing, Defense 10, Rate 1
Fists: Speed 8, Accuracy 11, Damage 6B, Defense 12, Rate 5
Kick: Speed 5, Accuracy 11, Damage 7B, Rate 3
Dodge: 15, Soak: 16B/9L/0A (Perronele, +13B/+8L) Health Levels: -0/-1/-1/-2/-2/-4/ Incapacitated

Experience Points: 8
Unspent XP: 0

Experience Log

Crafts 3->4 (5), Lore 2->3(3).

Character Description and Background

Built with +20 bonus points

Mortal Life

Jebtzun Dambu (invariably shortened to "Jeb") was once a shaman's apprentice among the barbarian tribes of the East. Orphaned since birth, he was the least of the least in the service of the great shaman Atahulpa, who spoke with gods and parlayed with spirits. Whenever scut work needed doing, a common herb needed finding, or a sacrificial beast's pen had to be shoveled out, Jeb did it. Between his chores, he slept in the branches of Atahulpa's tree and listened eagerly for the shaman's words of wisdom. He often listened in vain, for he was an orphan, unlucky, and the shaman had no desire to bring bad luck to the tribe.

Exaltation

Seeing as it was scut work, Jeb was the one who usually had to feed those unlucky captives who had been set aside for sacrifice to the King of the Wood. One Calibration, when the city folk were to be sacrificed by a cruel hunt among the forest, Jeb neglected his duties. When the time for the hunt came, the sacrifices were too weak to grant the King good hunting. Furious and terrified, Atahulpa slew them with his war club and marked Jeb with their blood. Now the prey, the boy fled the baying of the King's hounds, deeper into the primeval forest. Though his heart be strong, a mortal cannot escape those hounds, that run through the woods as fleet as birds upon the winter wind. In desperate flight, Jeb tripped and fell into a small hollow between two great oaks. There he found a pair of golden claws. He donned them just as the hounds were upon him, and slew the little gods in a storm of gold and blood. When at last he stood among the ruin, he saw the King of the Wood making obeisance to him, bathed in the golden light that shone from Jeb's Caste Mark.

Fearful of his vengeance -- and of the Wood King's wrath -- Jeb's tribe cast him out, weighed down with many gifts and the certain knowledge that he was now homeless as well as orphaned. Toughened by years of labor, Jebtzun rejected their gifts and went north. In time, he found a mentor and, for a while, a home.

Exalted Life

Having fled his life among the furthest east, Jeb found a mentor of sorts in the No Moon Lunar Pale Thorn. She taught him the rudiments of sorcery and sheltered him while he grew into his power. They fought together against the Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils, slaying her servants and driving back the shadowlands for a brief time. The power of the Dowager is great, though, and she took revenge by hunting and slaying the many children of Pale Thorn, catlike beastmen of the forest. Now their skulls adorn her citadel and their souls jangle in her panoply of soulsteel. Bitter over this loss, Pale Thorn withdrew even deeper into the forest, and now roams almost feral, killing and eating as she wills. She still recognizes Jeb, and will instruct him in the arts of sorcery or of the Tiger style. Where once she gave freely, she now demands payment in the form of worthy foes that he has slain -- for every Charm or Spell, he must bring her proof of a slain Exalt or god or demon, and the tale of that slaying.

For his part, saddened by Pale Thorn's change and wounded by the loss of many friends among her get, Jebtzun wandered west into the civilized lands, parlaying his power into food and shelter -- when he needed it -- by hunting creatures that haunt the soft and civilized lands. He has grown skilled in dispatching the undead, intimidating the little gods, and, if need be, negotiating with greater gods. Every season, he seeks out Pale Thorn and tells his tales and learns from her. Sometimes he tries to draw her out of her bitterness, and they part with hurtful words. Other times he brings luxuries from the cities, and then she mocks him for thinking her soft -- though she does love the feel of silk and the taste of wine. By the end of his visit, the wine is drunk and the silk torn in lovemaking, brief and awkward, and they part in silence and sorrow.

In his wanderings, Jebtzun has heard of mighty warriors, chosen of the Sun, who have established a kingdom of sorts in Calrushan Wood. In search of greater tales, and greater prey, he travels to the Wood. Accompanied by his demon minions and haunted by the shadow of his mentor, he seeks knowledge, power, and understanding.

Expanded Backgrounds

Artifact

Though he found his razor claws when he Exalted, Jebtzun has no idea of their provenance. He is mildly curious on this subject, and suspects they were the property of his First Age incarnation. His hearthstone bracers were a parting gift from Pale Thorn.

Manse

In his wanderings, Jebtzun has had more than a few chances to evict spirits from their homes. Only once has he done this from a manse, however, when he slew an air elemental that had extorting a region for the firstborn children of the inhabitants. Jebtzun claimed the manse as his own, and has found it a handy retreat and home for when he tires of traveling. It is defended by a quartet of gilmyne demons who kill any who approach without Jebtzun's leave.

Mentor

Pale Thorn is a No Moon Lunar, unaffiliated with any society. A cunning warrior and a powerful sorceress, she was deeply hurt by the Dowager of the Irreverent Vulgate in Unrent Veils, who hunted and killed the tribe of beastmen that Pale Thorn had spent two centuries building up and protecting. She is now bitter and distant, and hostile to strangers. Her relationship with Jebtzun is... complicated. At first she viewed him as a threat, then as a student and potential ally. At some point, sexual tension creeped into the relationship, which made things awkward. At about this point, their battles with the Dowager reached their culmination, which didn't help things. Now, Pale Thorn and Jebtzun attempt to maintain a mentor/student relationship on their seasonal meetings, but things invariably degenerate into a fight or a fling on the last few days. (Oddly enough, there's a correspondence. If she has been teaching him sorcery, it's usually a fight; if martial arts or thaumaturgy, usually love.) Pale Thorn's totem is the lynx.