Hecabus
Name
Hecabus (aka El'rohir)
Formal Title
El’rohir of the Clan Tanaka, Epic Lord of Hellfire & the 7th Ring, Slayer of 1,000,000 Vampires, The Prince of Happy Darkness, Follower and High Priest of the One Untrue God, Weasel God, Death Reincarnate, Strifebringer, Trickster, Duke of the Rising Sun, Keeper of the East Gate, Hero of the Gnoll Uprising, Wishburner, Firebrand, Defender of the Realm, Scion of Justice, Chaosmarque, Chief Executioner of the King, Wyrm Destroyer, Alien Gouger, Liebearer, Tamer of Giants, Honorary Jester of the Realm, Royal Pain & Foot Stomper of Opposition
30th level (Fighter 4/ Sorcerer 12 / Chosen of Loki 1/ Arcane Devotee 5 / Archmage 3 / Eldritch Master 5)
Race: Vampiric Ogre Magi (not my fault, I inherited the character)
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral (but borders on Chaotic Good)
Appearance
Hecabus stands 10’8” tall and 673 lbs., which is large even for an Ogre magi, and is only 124 years old (23 for eternity). His light green skin contrast sharply with his long dark blue hair and the small ebony horns that protrude from his forehead. His eyes are a deep blood red with strikingly white pupils with a childlike sparkle to them, his double-fanged teeth and claws are jet black. Hecabus does not look as feral, wart-covered or unkempt as a normal Ogre Magi even in his natural form. As natural shapeshifters, Ogre Magi look as they truly believe they should, but presumably due to his elvish upbringing and the inherent vanity that entails, Hecabus natural form is very elegant and attractive.
Hecabus favors loose, comfortable clothing, rarely wearing armour any more. He and is especially fond of very well made silk clothing cut in the latest oriental styles. Disarmingly, no matter what is going on his clothes are always pristinely clean. He is also fond of oriental weaponry and is usually armed with a Katana and dagger or a Naginata.
Hecabus has a Huge War Bat as a familiar (was a regular bat, but due to an epic level fight in a wild magic zone, he was permanently changed). Desmo is a cute looking bat.....that just happens to be big enough for Hecabus to right. He has a magic necklace and ring that allow him to live inside of a bag of holding when not needed.
Personality
Hecabus is the consummate trickster, and therefore a very devout follower of Loki, well as devout as followers of Loki get. He very rarely takes anything but the village and his “family” seriously and is almost always sarcastic. On the few occasions that he is not being sarcastic he is probably being cynical, sardonic or just flat out lying.
His sense of humor as only gotten wilder since he found out his true heritage and realized that his entire life has been a lie and his time spent in the Abyss has certainly made his pranks more elaborate. It is not uncommon to find Hecabus mocking his companions, demanding to be called by one of his many aliases, creating illusions of imagined dangers and talking to his weapons as if they were sentient.
The natural abilities of an Ogre Magi and those of a vampire work very well for tricking people, and more importantly protecting oneself when confronted by the subject of a joke, and Hecabus knows it.
Hecabus personality is split, much like the duality in his past. Although people are scared of his Ogre Magi form, most people have found Hecabus to be a caring and inspirational leader of a new religious movement with a wonderful sense of humor. Conversely, in his more acceptable elven form (he still uses the name of El’rohir for this form) is feared as the deadly enforcer that helped put a king on the throne and is often rumored to be the real power (which is not true, King Kain is much more powerful). The fact that he is a vampire is generally unknown and certainly his true generation is unknown.
Hecabus is extremely loyal to his followers, friends and the village in which he was raised, but will turn on any who betrays him or is in his way very quickly.
History
El’rohir was raised by elves, when his parents where slain in battle. His new parents enspelled him to look like a elf. El’rohir knew he was different as he was bigger than the other kids in his village and he grew faster and stronger every year. Near his 20th birthday, the village elders tasked him and a group of the most powerful children to investigate a series of dire portents. As he started adventuring, more of his racial powers started to show. He soon learned that he could regenerate, fly, turn gaseous and create darkness at will.....it was obvious that he was some weird vampire highbred. Not much later, a vampire asked if he would like to join his clan and he readily agreed. After his rebirth, El’rohir was told that he was actually an Ogre Magi and that his entire previous life had been a lie. Angry, he turned away from his village and friends, deciding to help the fledgling General Kain set up a new kingdom.
After a year or so, El’rohir came to grips with his former life and decided to rejoin the group from the village. The newly crowned King Kain asked El’rohir to complete one last mission which he accepted. This mission went horribly wrong, leaving El’rohir stranded in the Abyss, possessed by an imp. Months later, after freeing himself from the possession and killing the demons that tried to subjugate him. With no way back from the Abyss the creature now known as Hecabus continued to adventure, bringing his own form of justice and chaos, until he heard a voice he had not heard in several years. The voice was one of the members of the group he had left the village with. Shalington, the monkish mage had tried summoning a impish familiar, instead his summons was answered by Hecabus in the form of an imp.
This charade lasted for weeks as Hecabus teased, tormented and tricked his friends. Pulling unbelievable pranks and confusing his childhood friends. This cumulated with the “imp” out-drinking and out-gambling the hill giant chieftan, stripping the queen and humiliating the fire giant advisor. Naturally, the band of adventurers had to run as the hill giants attacked. After enduring hours of griping at the hands of his “master” and the remaining party-members that hadn’t been captured, Hecabus boldly told the group that he would singly handedly save the party members and destroy the giants, which he did. Unfortunately, this display of sheer power clued the party into Hecabus’ former identity and his ruse was over.
During his new travels, Hecabus heard of a little known trickster god named Loki. The more Hecabus researched the more he began to follow the tenets of Loki, eventually the party (ok, Hecabus and Crowe the halfling Loremaster carrying the burned and charred remains of the rest of the party) stumbled onto a portal to Asgard and Hecabus used this opportunity to try and meet Loki. Although, he did not gain a direct audience with Loki, his persistence, power, ability to trick the god’s staff and lyrical poetry (written in his own blood on his own skin) impressed the god. Loki burned his mark into Hecabus arm so that he could watch his growth.
Since being marked by his god, Hecabus has steadily acquired more power and pained beings with his wit. He has captured one tower and helped build a tower with his companions, he has single handedly taken control of an onclave of Fire Giants, destroyed a drowish invasion started by Lloth and a drowish temple, established a large city of sentient ferrets that worship him, grown the church of Loki considerably, destroyed an economy and rebuilt it in a week and more. His biggest moment was destroying all other vampires on the planet and sending himself into torpor in order to stop the drow backed vampire invasion of the planet. This act not only saved the planet but led to the events that has allowed him to become a demi god. Upon his the recovery of his body from underneath a destroyed mansion where he sacrificed himself, his body was interred at the site of the first church he built to Loki. People from all over have made a pilgrimage to his tomb, a crystal casket with special censors, where people could give an offering of their blood so Hecabus can live again.
Personality.
Accomplishments
Used a dead face hugger (yes from the movie Alien) to convince the party that the 3 characters had been infected by chest bursters, resulting in the monk and cleric taking turns swallowing poison to try and kill the creature and the fighter letting the druid knock him out and operate on him. No anesthia, no skill, no alien. It was great. Unfortunately, the DM let the guys off the hook before I got really mean!
Killed 1,000,000 vampires in one round.
Became a Demigod seeking true god-hood.
Bluffed a CR 43 Red Dragon 6 times before helping to slay the beast (was 30th level at the time and kept winning the contested rolls..... “Portal maintenance”).
Created a race of sentient and intelligent Ferrets (aka Thunder Rats).
Tricked the rich people of a major city to gamble away all their money and then gave the money (some 100,000 gp to the poor of the city).
Opened several part illusionary brothels (no diseases and no labor) and gambling halls in Loki’s name.
Angered Lloth several times and walked away from it.
Conquered a Fire Giant city in less than 24 hours.
Campaign Notes
The campaign started in 2ed and has run about 8 of the last 10 years. I took over the character when he was in the Abyss, I really thought at first that I was going to be playing this guys familiar until the DM handed me the character sheet and told me what character I really had. The Ogre Magi part of the character was a DM hose on the original player, who was not told until he became a vampire. This character is a horrible munchkin character as the DM didn’t make me pay the levels for his race or the vampire template because he didn’t think it was fair.
The campaign includes a large part of White Wolf’s World of Darkness (Vampire clans, werewolves, etc.) and creatures from movies such Predator and Aliens. Although it may sound a bit silly, the game was very straight laced before I started meddling.
Known Alias
Anagogic, Bucky, Bloahar, Camm, Captain Flambea, Celerslahan, Charizesthai, Count Orlok, Dauthi, Desmodon T’dae, Deyja, Elaia Branca, Erythos Ops, Faerfyr, Fangzand, Garchaion, Gebrunkel, Gomabathys, Impian, Konoskalt, Locian Regula, Marskilen, Max Schreck, Mustela, Nonothian, Novidere, Nutbasher, Pimp Daddy Tricky, Praylean, Priest Chance DeLuc, Professor Feign, Pyre, Rot Ouga, Ruse Canis, Sciftan, Suicara, Volgus, Strife, Swert, Smaralda Fla, Tricari, Wysard Magus
