Ao Yun Wu
MY NAME IS . . . Ao Yun Wu
AND I AM . . . Character Concept
WHAT'S BEEN KEEPING YOU AWAKE? The murder of my entire family and extended family.
WHAT JUST HAPPENED TO YOU? It came out of nowhere like the wrath of an angry god. Eight feet tall with eyes black as the void and accentuated with bat ears, skin like bleached paper stretched beneath serpentine scales, and claws and teeth covered in dripping blood. Some monster from the darkest depths that sought my lifeblood and soul. It chased me. I ran. When I was eventually cornered, I fought it with iron fists and ancient martial techniques, and it responded in kind with otherworldly strength and agility. At last I flung it out into the rising sun, and it burned before vanishing with a terrible scream. But before its defeat, it tore its horrid claws along my right arm, and left a long scar that to this day has healed over black and rotten, though without pain or infection.
WHAT'S ON THE SURFACE? A wise old Chinese man dressed in heavy robes with hair of purest white. A guru of knowledge, a stalwart defender of the innocent and helpless, and a hearty love of fine pipe tobacco and strong drink. Quick with a laugh or a bit of sage advice, slow to anger.
WHAT LIES BENEATH? An old man who's utterly terrified of what's going on, who isn't as skilled as he used to be, and who's health is slowly deteriorating while he can do nothing about it. Monsters, and men who act like monsters. Men who aren't men but who are monsters disguised as men. The world is slowly breaking apart, and he's becoming more and more anxious as time passes. And now he's all alone in the world, his entire family dead. He's so tired, and his spirits are heavy. Sometimes he just wants to lie down and never get up.
WHAT IS YOUR PATH? He wants to know who killed his entire family and why. To know who or what could hate him so much that he deserved to be left all by himself, with all of his loved ones torn away and destroyed. He'll find out what truly happened, and who the culprit was, and then... well... and then he'll figure out what to do when he gets there.
TOTAL DISCIPLINE 3
PERMANENT MADNESS 0
CURRENT EXHAUSTION 0
RESPONSES:
TOTAL FLIGHT RESPONSES 1
TOTAL FIGHT RESPONSES 2
EXHAUSTION TALENT
Martial Arts
MADNESS TALENT
O is for Orpheus who walked down to Hell. If you know the way, you can do so as well.
What Can I Do?
Like Orpheus, you can walk to Hell and then walk back.
The problem is, Hell is a funny sort of a place. It borders on every city and every town, and you can use it as a shortcut to get somewhere mundane, but think about that for a second—you’re walking through Hell to save on travel time.
Sometimes, it rings true with the stories of fire and brimstone—like when it was a rusting industrial wasteland, where furnaces belched clouds of sooty smoke, and everything was greased with a thin layer of half-burned human fat. Other times, the place is more abstract and allegorical. Once, it was row upon uncountable row of clinically clean white pods, each containing one writhing person with a finger thick cable plugged into the base of their shaved skulls. Another time it's something straight out of Dante's Inferno, all layers of sin and never-ending torment. That seems to be most common, you find. There are demons, of course, but they too are ever-changing. One day, they’re snarling beasts sprung from Medieval woodcuts. Another, they’re nebbish bureaucrats just pushing paper and doing their jobs. Sometimes, they're horrific monsters straight out of nightmare... and you start to wonder about the Mad City.
You can find all sort of people in Hell. There’s sometimes no rhyme or reason to who’s down there and why. Some are blameless, suffering damnation for an arbitrary cultural reason. Some ran afoul of their own beliefs in ways they themselves couldn’t forgive. Others are clearly monsters who deserve their fate. If nobody is looking, you can sometimes sneak people back up with you.
There’s a Hell of a price, though. You’re a known quantity in Hell. Demons know you by name, and if you think for a moment, you can recall theirs. Hell marks you by the ash in your tread and the look in your eye, and that look… because of it, there’s few who can meet your gaze.
(1 - 2 dice) Sidle down one of the hidden ways where Hell impinges to find a shortcut past a guard or through a locked door. You don’t descend more than a step or two, but you can still hear and smell Hell.
(3 - 4 dice) Saunter through Sheol to speak with the damned. Duck through the hellish suburbs to wander amongst them, and you’ll see terrible horrible, forbidden things. The damned are a pretty chatty lot, when they have tongues. Emerge wherever you like—you can even use it as a shortcut to get from one place on Earth to another, if you’re willing to walk down Pandemonium Boulevard.
(5 - 6 dice) Fling yourself into Hell’s teeth, sprinting full-out downward, faster and harder right into the heart—where it is timeless and eternal, bordering on all places and all times—to emerge anywhen. Go back to your enemy’s childhood and push them in front of a bus. Or grab somebody or something from Hell’s grasp, and drag it back out with you. Or fling something straight into its maw and have it never return, writhing in punishment for eternity. Hell is greedy and jealous. Run like the Devil’s biting your ass, because he’s about to.
SCARS
- I Did Not Give In To Pain
THERE IS A DOOR IN THE CITY SLUMBERING: through a great stone archway flanked by massive stone lions in a field of poppies.
THAT OPENS IN THE MAD CITY: Rattown Quarter; Dockside Tavern
