Voonsai

Special Equipment:

Voonsai can materialize small metal items seemingly from nowhere. They disappear after no longer having physical contact with a living being.

Appearance:

Most people never face Voonsai in person. If somebody can see spirits, he will percieve a flashing cloud being constantly chained and bursting the bonds again. A deep growl is heard when he is agitated, and claws of crimson light strike forth from the mist.

Background:

Nature has given birth to many a spirit to aid her in the great endeavour that is life - spirits of rivers who cleanse the waters and teach young fish to swim, spirits of trees who hum love-songs to bees to attract them to the flowers, spirits of flashfire and flood to renew and make place for new creation.
All those spirits had their task, and in doing it, they found fulfillment. Until man came around.
Hewing cities of stone and dead wood and choking pure nature beneath them, man has made many spirits homeless. Rock spirits whose stones have been hewn and river spirits whose streams have been redirected and polluted went insane, and dwindled away to nothingness. Animal spirits found little interest in herds of tame cattle and wandered off. Yet some prevailed.
Deep in the gutters, rat spirits sing their lunatic tunes, on rooftops, cat spirits thrive in the urban jungle. Spirits of the spring have found a new place in private chambers or brothels, while those of rage inhabit arenas and fighting pits, changed beyong recognition.

Voonsai too is a dispossessed spirit. Once, his task was to teach young predators to hunt and fend for themselves when they began to mature, to teach them stealth and ferocity they needed to survive. Promising wolf cubs he helped to fight their way through the pack hierarchy, and young tigers followed his advice when tracking prey.
When the city of was built, Voonsai was caught unaware, and then without a predator host to carry him off, he was stranded. Yet, he did not despair, for that was truly foreign to his nature. Instead, he found a new purpose.

Man is a beast as well, shielding himself from the brutal truth of this by the shell called civilization. Voonsai was well aware of it. Nowadays, he rides human cubs and shows them how to fletch teeth.
In night hours, he enters the sleep of those young who are either mistreated and oppressed - street urchins, orphans, abused appretices, but also offspring of the wealthy and powerful who are locked away in gilded cages, and shows them the reality of life in all its harsh glory. While he does not exert full control of his host, he nudges in the direction of self-confidence, ferocity and lust for adventure. Most of those he visits never realize that he is there.
At once, he may be present in perhaps a dozen minds, and has thus formed a society of discontent youngsters, who haunt the streets at night. Whether they just fight for a place for themselves, or tease the oppressive elements of society, mock the wealthy and the tyrannical, or just fool around, racing along rooftops, wrestle or enjoy their newly discovered sexuality, they are a wild bunch. By night. By day, they return to their lives as if nothing had happened.
Well aware that not only physical prowess, but also information, connections and wealth aid the survival of 'his' young, Voonsai has formed them into a thieves' guild of sorts - they get into places unnoticed and unsuspected, and are surprisingly nimble and fit for what they pretend to be (who'd suspect a nobleman's well-behaved daughter, sweet fourteen years old, to be able to jump to the top of a 7' wall? Lift a heavy chest? Or dispose of two well-trained guards? Those who have been visited for a long period of time develop the ability to shape-shift into a half-human half-beast form most appropriate for their nature, which adds some more bite to their endeavours. The Wyldlings, as the band calls themselves, are a small group, yet not to be ignored.
Many an opponent or business partner has made the error of underestimating them, but rarely does one so twice.
What about Voonsai? He is greatly enjoying himself, for the new challenges the city poses guarantee a new thrill every night. He's cocky, has got a sense of humour and a wild, yet flashy style. His charges learn much from him, and so these attributes can be seen in many of them. While no fool, Voonsai has lots of drive - he's curious, hungry and horny, and certainly not willing to give up one square foot of ground he fought for.

While he may seem light-hearted, he is well-aware of the fact that he is just aiding 'his' kids and teaching them to fend for themselves, and when the time comes, he lets go. A few of those he visited go back to their subjugated roles, many of them attain leading positions, concealing their feral self beneath a farce they put up for the 'normals' (so, the 14-year old from the previous example might pose outwardly as the perfect lady, but be able to handle herself in any fight, striving self-confidently to reach the social top). A select few, aware of the existence of Voonsai, stay in the guild.

And Voonsai learns, an unseen presence, adding to the dynamics of the city.

Roleplaying Notes:

Plot hooks, anyone?
*Imagine your kid, Astra, a perfect little lady, or your humble apprentice Ector are suddenly showing teeth. The have self-esteem (disrespect!), strange friends (vagabonds!) and stay out late ... actually, don't come home at all (incredible!). They are impossible to track or keep locked in... still, they manage to finish all their duties, but ... what will the other lords/wizards think? What a shame if your kid proves you wrong in an argument, or refuses an arranged marriage because the groom-to-be 'has got no balls'?
A task for the heroes: find out who's spoiling my kid!

*An orphan lashed out at his tormentor (eh, caretaker!) and fled. Bring him before justice!

*Thievery. No culprit has yet been caught. Will you manage to do so?

*Dealing with the Wyldlings: how do you deal with a thieve's guild full of kids?

*Spies! Someone is spying on the chamber of lords, and blackmailing them to do something (the right thing). Find out who!

*Competition! The PCs race to claim the Orb of Dragonkind only to find that a teenage girl has already claimed it. Now, if it was Venerus Bubonicus, the evil cultist, or Sir Biggus, the arrogant knight, they might have just smitten him. But young lady Alia duBois is a wholly different matter.

*Relations. What if a lad of fifteen decides your 9th level paladin Miriam Starheart if THE lady for him and starts courting her, and is more interesting than all her previous suitors?