Keln Whist

petroleumjelly's Amstaad character.

Description

Human, just under six feet tall. Is forty-two years of age, and has silver hair tied in a silken silver ribbon, and silver eyes. His left ear is missing a substantial chunk. Walks with a staff topped with a Caduceus, even though he does not require it for movement.

Stress Tracks

Composure Stress Track

[] [] [] [] [] [] [mild] [moderate] [severe]

Health Stress Track

[] [] [] [] [] [] [mild] [moderate] [severe]

Aspects

• Human
• Curiosity killed the cat...
• "Anything but snakes!"
• "Eurek – oh no."
• Caduceus Staff – the eternal reminder
• Enemy of Sligh, former Gentleman Thief
• Author of "Relics and Runes: The Magical Arts, Book I"
• Knack for distractions
• It's not useless if you can find a use for it
• Friends come first
• There is no God higher than Truth

Skills

• Magic (Great)
• Healing (Good)
• Lore (Good)
• Endurance (Fair)
• Athletics (Fair)
• Resolve (Fair)
• Alertness (Average)
• Rapport (Average)
• Investigation (Average)
• Empathy (Average)

Stunts

• Rare Artifact: Caduceus (Magic)
• Psychic (Magic)
• Minor Words of Power (Magic)
• Secrets of the Arcane: Imperishable Magic: Thaumaturgical Artificiology (Magic)
• Artificer (Magic)

Youth

Age: Ten

Keln Whist began as an ordinary boy. He was a single child in a middle-income family... his father worked as lexicographer and a translator, and his mother was a fruit hawker. They lived in a quiet suburbia of Celandine, just a few miles from the city itself. His father was a loose follower of Deneir, a God of Scholars, and his mother never much spoke of religion.

His childhood education stemmed from the public school, where Keln was a cut above the rest, often asking questions the teachers could not answer. He had a small group of friends, and they often traveled to Celandine on errands. On such trips, Keln collected strange objects from the roadside and from vendors and placed them into his sack, and was also overly inquisitive to passersby (much to his friends' embarrassment). On one such occasion, this earned him a near-death whipping by a strange man with a very rare snake whip, for his 'insolence', while his friends were forced to watch in silence. This has remained a sore subject for him.

Coming of Age

Age: Nineteen

One summer evening, an amorous friend – Mallory Chai – had visited and insisted that she had something to show Keln in Celandine. Keln, half-expecting a romantic night, readily agreed. [Note: In this area, it is traditional for the women to ask out the men]. As it happens, Mallory wanted to show introduce him to Pladmond Deys, an aging warlock of note who dealt in magical objects. Deys immediately recognized that Keln carried a magical item about his person, and at the eve's end imparted this information to Keln. Afterwards, Keln sifted through the objects in his handbag and found that one particular item indeed seemed to have a strange resonance, which both intrigued and repulsed him.

Upon waking the next morning, while carefully examining the artifact, Keln tried to focus his mind into it... and as soon as he believed he has caught hold of something truly special, he watched as his love Mallory fell the floor convulsing, struck by a bolt of energy of his own device. He was unable to help her excepting for comfort, and she died minutes later. Wallowing in his powerlessness, Keln steeled himself from that moment into keeping those dear to him safe... and to do so, he must have the proper training.

Keln attached the artifact – which is in the shape of a caduceus (entwined snakes) – to a staff he purchased from Deys, to remind him of his greatest fears, his lost love, and his purpose.

Adventure!: Laced Dreams

Age: Twenty-Nine - Forty-two

After over a decade of study, Keln Whist is ready to set out into the world beyond Celandine as a "magician for hire". Unbeknownst to him, however, his Caduceus Staff carries a darker history than he had thought... and when he mentions it offhand in his first book, "Relics and Runes: The Magical Arts, Book I", it attracts some very unwanted attention.

At the ripe age of thirty-six, on a seemingly harmless expedition with a band of gentlemen searching for some object of minor consequence, Keln is informed by an unnamed whisperer in a forest (under orders of one "Trimaguther") that he is actually traveling with gentlemen thieves led by a curiously dangerous man by the name of Sligh. Keln has to act as if he is unaware of his situation while finding a way to escape the thieves with both his artifact and his life!

He has similarly complicated adventures (with such people as Gideon Selwyn), most recently with a curious Elf by the name of Sykes Hammerer, who turns out to be a particularly formidable - and stressful - colleague.

Also starring in

• Vitriolic Vipers with Gideon "Viper" Selwyn (Sudo_Nym)
• The Kingdom of Smaulorien with Elessar (doctor no)