Bruder :: Ghjost Walker and the Keening Sword
Str: 10
Dex: 10
Con: 13 (+1)
Int: 13 (+1)
Wis: 14 (+2)
Cha: 16 (+3)
Appearence
:: height: 6'1"
:: weight: 200lbs
Skills:
Occupation
:: Craft-Mech (base 2) His job.
:: Repair-Auto (base 4) His job.
:: Drive-Bike (base 4) His thing.
Other
:: Craft-Cooking 5 (base 4, int+1) His hobby.
:: Spot 6 (base 4, wis+2) On a bike, your awareness is your crumple zone.
:: Know-PopCulture 5 (base 4, int+1) Once a big manga/anime fan.
:: Listen 5 (base 3, wis+2) See spot.
:: TreatInjury 5 (base3, wis+2) Does some work at the local race track with a riders club. Took a first aide course.
:: Know-Streetwise 3 (base 2, int+1) Likes the odd puff.
:: Bluff 5 (base 2, cha+3, emp+lvl) He's a mechanic: "Looks bad ... "
:: SenceMotive 4 (base2, wis+2, emp+Lvl) See above.
Feats
SimpleWeaponProf.
ArchaicWEaponProf.
Brawl.
Talents
:: Empathy
Stuff
:: a rebuilt Buell motorbike.
:: an old 45 automatic pistol and some ammo
:: an assortment of ordinary clothes.
:: one dark blue suit
:: a quite extensive collection of manga in boxes
:: an old F100 truck
:: an old 3 bedroom house with a garage. The third room is empty but for a punching bag and some weights in one corner. The truck is parked in the driveway as the space in the garage is taken up by half a dozen old bikes in various stages of repair. Bruder hates to see stuff thrown away. One, a Suzuki 750, is in almost working order, it jst needs some bits reattached.
:: a half decent stero system
:: a mixed bunch of CDs
:: a well stocked fridge - on thing Bruder does get around to is cooking.
Background
Bruder is dead, he just does know it yet. Not "dead" as in the gangster movie "You're a dead man, Bruder!" "dead". But "dead" as in not living at this time.
Of course there are lots of things that Bruder does not know. How to calculate a price-earnings ratio. The difference between Merlot and Shiraz. Angela Jolie's phone number. Useful things to know, certainly. But not quite as ... significant.
He does know that things got pretty f**ked up recently. He knows that since then he can't seem to get his eyes to focus properly on people. He keeps seeing double, like those shadowy images, but with the colours all out of wack, that you get on your TV when the tuning is out. And he doesn't breath any more. He can if he thinks about it, but when he stops thinking about it, he stops breathing. And his heart stops beating. He hasn't been to a doctor because, quite frankly, he doesn't know what to say. " Hi Doc. I don't seem to be breathing and my heart keeps stopping."
And then there is the sword. It looks kind of like a Japanese katana, but more minimalist. He took it down to an antique shop one time, but the way the guy in the shop acted was kreepy. Or perhaps it was the colours. So he took it back and fled. He wished that he hadn't gone there now, the sense that he was being followed and watched started soon after that. The sword is under the couch now.
But give the guy a break. If you woke up each day, shat, showered and shaved, you wouldn't think that you were dead, would you. The old lady down at the little corner shop still calls him "dearie". The hookers down the street still ask him if he wants a little company. The customers at the bike shop still keep trying to hang around and make suggestions while he is working on their bikes.
What would you think?
To top it off, its hasn't been Bruder's month. He has been having some bad dreams lately. Faces and voices, deamons from his past haunt him, taunt him. Each morning he wakes up exausted, the sheets damp with sweat. And his motor contral is going to s**t. The other day he couldn't ge a bl**dy cigarette out of the softpack. He got so pissed off that eventually just ripped the pack apart, along with most of the cigarettes inside.
Bruder's currrent motor control is the residual from his living life. But he is gradually losing that. He has to learn how to control his actions through his spirit. Its a difficult task, and many fail. The dreams are the manifestation of the Ghjost Walker who is trying to guide Bruder to mastery. They are dark and violent because Bruder is resisting them.
Notes/Ideas/Possibilities:
Each night Bruder has to make some sort of DC check to see if he has mastered the lesson. Initial lessons would be focused on gaining control and arresting the decay. Lessons then progress onto mastery which can lead to a level of physical ability beyond what originally existed. Perhaps there are a succesion of DC checks of increasing difficulty. Enhancement would be quite difficult.
The sword is a manifestation from the ghost world. A talisman or avatar. Bruder was big into manga and anime as a kid, particulaly anything samurai related. His mastering of the spirit mastery need to survive is not going well as he is reluctant to handle the sword.