Gaeric

Appearance:

Nowdays this man seems a little ‘scruffy', untidy for an alchemist of the royal family. But then, he hasnt been in service of the emperor for quite some time. The mans hair - a chestnut colour with streaks of gray, is untidy, tousled. His face is unshaven, the beginnings of a beard forming, and his eyes, wide, though ever-tired reflect uncertainty. What the man dresses in varies, of course, but he does seem to prefer the old, brown robes which was his Alchemist attire, simple in design, but comfortable. Often the man seems quite jumpy, as though deep in thought, and as with so many people these days - he seems to be tormented with inner-demons... Hm, Well, unlike the others, his inner-demons can come out:

At completely random times of the day or night, at completely random places, and for completely random amounts of time (Minutes or days), this man may begin to scream in utter agony. Several seconds after this screaming occurs, of course, onlookers may realise what the problem is. Firstly, they may notice an intricate, scale-like pattern forming on all visible sections of his skin, slowly becoming more and more apparant. His skin also seems to alter, gradually becoming a forest-green and hardening, thickening. Whilst this happens, the mans arms and legs lengthen, his hind legs twisting and jerking audibly as the bones, tendons and muscles reshape and reform. Finger and toe nails make way for wickedly curved claws, a black ichor smeared apon the tips, and the mans skull alters, jaw growing outwards and forming a reptilian muzzle, his teeth itching as they grow in length and become far sharper. At this point, the mans cries of agony would gargle within his mouth, before changing into hisses of fury. A second or two after this alteration of vocals, A long, olive-green, serpentine tongue would flicker out of those maws, smelling the air. Next, A vast array of curved spines would erupt forth down along the unfortunate mans spine, working along to the very tip of his newly formed tail. Lastly, of course, those eyes, once human, would flare into a brilliant crimson. Now on all-fours this man... no, beast, Peers malevolantly across the area, searching for prey. The mans intentions may have been questionable earlier, but it is clear that now, at least, that those intentions are hostile.

Background:

And thus the Emperor decreed!

Let all the greatest minds in the land devise a creature!
A creature which we can control.
A creature of war.
A creature of assassination.
A creature which our foes may rightly label ‘death'!
Let the perfect beast be made for the betterment of our land!

And so it was done, for none dared defy the power and rule of the emperor! Gaeric, the trusted alchemist of the Emperor, was to be head of the project, and he fit into this task brilliantly - for he was a man of vision, a man of ingenuity. Aah, why not obtain the essence of the elusive vampire of the southern night-lands? It is said theyre skin can close over fatal wounds in meagre minutes! And why not get this new creature to have the poisonous scratch of the notorious bog-lurkers which lie in the forests of the kingdoms own land?

For some good months expeditions of magi and alchemists were sent out to collect extracts of select animals and bring them back to the central lore-works of the county, and a steady array of vials containing the essense of a special ability of each creature deemed worthy for the experiment. Gaeric would spend many hours, often going late into the night to categorise each object and store it in a shelf. One pleasant day, whilst deep in work with his twelve other comrades, he made his way over to the shelf to grab their newest ingredient - the night-vision of the Stalkers in the dungeons of Kahl-Aridos - when he clumsily stumbled on the hem of his robe. Such a simple, foolish mistake, but with such terrible consequences...

The shelf broke from its fixture in the wall, and the vials, filled with the smoky essence of the attributes of all those creatures, shattered upon the floor, the gases quickly dispersing, mixing with themselves and filling the small room with its poisonous fog. This occurance will have taken little more than half a minute, and the workers - stunned by the loss of their long project - failed to act. Then, one of them started a ragged, asphyxiated cough, which seemed to break the inactivity. People screamed, people cried, people fled. Gaeric himself turned and made his way out of the room, gasping and gagging as he tried to clear his lungs - but he could already feel the alterations taking place. And thusly, minutes after the disaster had occured, he transformed.

three days later, he awoke, finding himself in the cities crude sewerage system - a naked human, covered in filth and slime and... Much to Gaerics fear... Blood. Gaeric quickly came to the conclusion of what had happened to him, though - he knew what those vials contained. But what of his fellow ‘scientists'? What happened to them!?

Gaeric surfaced again, finding a set of rags in the streets and set off to the LoreWorks building where he performed those experiments. On his way there, he noticed the city was far, far quieter than usual. So many doors and windows were shut and locked, and few roamed the streets. What little amount of people who DID walk the streets, whispered fearfully of deadly lizard-beasts slaughtering the good folk of the city. The Alchemist known as Gaeric, of course, was presumed dead. He arrived at his workplace to find it long abandoned, and therefore made that place his makeshift home - using what little chemicals and reagents he had there to attempt to make a cure for the horrific plight of which had befallen him and his bretheren.

Well, it seems the Emperor got his creature for war, killing and assassination. Unfortunately, This creature cannot be controlled.

Roleplaying Notes:

* Gaeric will never be able to create a cure - Whenever he is in human form, he will work on it, but whenever he transforms, the lizard - bieng semi-sentient - destroys the work he had created.

*This character and scenario could be a set of an RP, in where the adventurers come to the town to find rewards set in place for slaughtering ‘lizardmen'. Gaeric, who was closest to the chemicals when the vials shattered, would be the deadliest (Bieng a big boss, of sorts). The others would be mutations of beast and man, who would have several but not all of the attributes of the Creature. The ultimate goal is to either slay Gaeric, the ‘leader' of the beasts, or to find/create a cure for him.

*Alternatively, you could play AS Gaeric, who when in human form is weak, but has the mind and skills of an alchemist, and when is transformed, is powerful, but uncontrollable.

*Could be an interesting horror theme: *Jason walks slowly down the street, eyes adjusting to the dim light of twilight. Strange, how deserted this street is... A sound echoes from one allyway, causing Jason to leap and draw his sword in fear, but then relax as a screeching cat skitters across the road. His journey continues for some time without incident, but then another crash from another random alleyway - this time much louder. Well, hopefully that was a dog... But then from that alleyway comes the sound of extremely heavy footsteps, as though a huge beast were loping forth. Jason trembles slightly and stops where he is. And then... A low, menacing hiss, then abruptly, silence. What the...!? Now thoroughly terrified, Jason quickens his pace. But he always has that feel of something watching... waiting... hunting......

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|This character was a concoction of the demented minds of
|CaptainPenguin and Shadoweagle. Hope you enjoyed.
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