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Bastion Ulbrecht
Pronunciation: BAS-tee-OHN UL-brekt

Forum ID Bundesphar
Plot Bastion's Demons
Bastion is © Bundesphar.
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Age 20
Birth Year NRC 510
Gender Male
Race Human
Homeland Moss

Physical Description

    Bastion is a very attractive young man, nearly beautiful. He is slightly tall and somewhat on the thin side, though his body does have some muscle in it. His hair is thick and so black it appears blue in certain light. He wears it tied back into a braid that falls to mid-back, with short bangs framing his face. His eyes are large, slightly almond shaped, and colored dark blue. His lashes are long, and his brows arch fairly normally. His gaze is very deep, with a seeking quality to it. His skin is extremely pale, almost porcelain. He takes care of his skin and it is largely unblemished and unscarred. The exception is a four inch long burn along the back of his left forearm. He has his mothers high cheekbones and his fathers strong jaw, and he often wears a small smile.

Height 5’10” Hair Color Black
Weight 155lbs Eye Color Blue
Build Slim Skin Color Very Fair

Clothing and Armor

    Bastion wears a black cloth shirt with wrist length sleeves and black cloth pants that reach to his ankles. He wears short black leather boots with silver buckles (not actual silver, just colored that way). His black leather gloves reach about three inches past his wrists. He covers the whole ensemble with a long black cloth coat with silver colored buttons on the front. The coattail brushes the backs of his knees, and the sleeves are also wrist length. The cuffs, tail, and collar of the coat are embroidered with blue thread. A dragon’s wing, the Ulbrecht family crest, is embroidered in blue thread on the right sleeve, reaching from elbow to shoulder. He wears a black leather choker, with a silver clasp shaped like a dragon's eye. He doesn't own true armor, preferring to stay mobile in combat.

Weapon Description

    Bastion’s staff is a weapon, badge of profession, and sign of nationality all in one. The shaft is deep brown polished oak, about five and a half feet long. The ends are capped with iron, to increase the potency of strikes. The top cap is fashioned in the likeness of a dragon’s head, with a orb held in its mouth. The bottom cap is a dragon's tail, wrapped around another orb. Small runes are etched around the bases of the caps. He also own a dagger, a gift from his little sister. The blade is straight, about five inches long, and the hilt is wrapped, somewhat crudely, with brown leather strips.

Class Mage
Occupation Explorer
Guild Membership Mages’ Guild (3)
Weapons Quarterstaff, dagger
Armor None
Equipment Bedroll, pillow, week worth of rations, waterskin, wineskin, hairbrush, mirror, spare clothes, herb satchel, small tent, lantern, coin purse, pack mule, two tomes (one his own journal, one for reference)
Familiar Sable
Magic System Sorcery
School of Sorcery Arcane
Stats
ST 12
EN 10
AG 12
IN 14
LU 10
PB 14

Abilities

    Though first and foremost a mage, Bastion is the son of a martial family and has trained his body as well as his mind. He’s agile and quick on his feet, able to defend himself or attack in close quarters with his staff. That said, he is not the hardiest of men, and prefers to stay out of melee.

    Bastion’s arcane talent is remarkable for his age. Most of his spells revolve around light and sound, with a definite focus on damage dealing. Recent events have left him with passing knowledge of Necromancy, but not enough to be used, and Bastion himself is far too terrified to research the matter further.

Personality

    Bastion is fairly cheerful, all things considered. He enjoys the company of others and loves being the center of attention. He has a sharp sense of humor and considers himself a wit. He loves women and will go to lengths to talk to them or just be near them, though any relationships he has tend to be short due to his, in his words “unselfish” nature. People often find him charming and confident. Underneath it all however, he’s scared. The thought of people discovering his crime terrifies him, not the least reason being that they will abandon him. He can't forgive himself for what happened to his brother.

Alignment: Chaotic Good

Quotes: “Knowledge is power, and I am not nearly strong enough yet.”

History

    Bastion was born the third child of the noble Ulbrecht family of Moss. His father, Ritter, is a knight of the realm. His mother, Analisa, is a thief from Raiden turned noblewoman. When Bastion was born his older brother and sister, Ashur and Briana, were four and three, respectively. When Bastion himself was three the youngest child, sister Rikildis, was born.

    Though he was born and raised during a busy time in Lodoss’ history, Bastion’s childhood was content and happy. Safely ensconced in the family’s estate, the wars seldom touched the lives of the Ulbrecht children. Even when their father rode out on dragon back to fight for his children’s future, he always returned swiftly and safe. Bastion and his siblings fully expected to follow Ulbrecht tradition, the boys becoming knights and the girls entering society, but fate dealt a unforeseen hand.

    When he turned ten, Ashur began to display a talent for sorcery. Simple spells came naturally to him, even at such a young age. When Bastion reached the same age, he too evinced the gift, though not to the same extent as his brother. Their parents were at first leery of the development, but the boys delighted in their new found skill. Eventually, Ritter and Analisa excepted that their sons would be mages, and sent out requests for a tutor. A man of Moss, Gyles by name, answered the call, and moved into the Ulbrecht estate to teach Ashur and Bastion the ways of magic.

    Bastion was a bright attentive student, but Ashur proved to be a prodigy. What took Bastion a week to learn took Ashur a day. Unfortunately, Ashur’s talent made him proud and impatient. He resented the slow measured pace of learning Gyles set and urged their master to accelerate their lessons. Gyles’ response was that true power came only with control, and control came only with patience. Ashur scoffed at this, and Bastion, with faith in his brother, secretly agreed with him, though he never argued with their master.

    Two years into their schooling, sixteen year old Ashur took his twelve year old brother aside and told him he had a secret to share with him. Bastion followed his brother into the estate’s cellars, to a forgotten room at the lowest point of the foundation. Within this room, illuminated by a single lantern, Ashur showed his brother a book he had procured from the marketplace in town. The man had been unable to read the book, assumed it to be worthless, and gave it to Ashur. But the strange writing was diagrams and arcane formulae, a sorcerer’s tome.

    As Bastion stared wonderingly at the book, Ashur told his brother his plan. This room would be their secret study. They would continue learning the basics from Gyles, but here they would learn true secrets and true power. Using their parents’ money, they would snap up any book they found in the marketplace and bring it back here to study. They had been chosen, Ashur said. Two such talents for magic in one family could not be a accident. They were meant to return human sorcery to the forefront of history. Bastion was struck by his brother’s passion, and quickly agreed to keep his secret and aid him in gathering knowledge.

    Six years passed, and the Ulbrecht family prospered. Ashur and Bastion continued their studies under Gyles, who was practically a member of the family by this point. Ashur, truly a introvert, seldom strayed from the estate. Bastion, who had become a very outgoing young man, divided his time between his studies, light martial training, and rambles through the city. It was on these latter outings that he scoured the marketplaces, buying scraps of lore from ignorant or unscrupulous merchants, then hurrying home to pour and puzzle over the finds with his brother in the secret study. Even their master did not suspect the brothers’ stealthy learning, believing himself blessed with two remarkable students. In public, and in secret, the sons of Ulbrecht grew powerful beyond their years.

    On his eighteenth birthday, Bastion returned from a night on the town to find his brother wide awake, pondering something in his lap. Ashur, in a tone his brother had never heard from him before, asked Bastion for his opinion on Ashur’s new find. It was a book, a rather shoddy example of one too. It was weathered and discolored, its pages stained and in some cases, apparently burned. The impressions of runes could be felt, if no longer seen, on the cover, and its title could just barely be made out.

Demonomicon

    Ashur had gone into the city that evening, following a lead. At a bad dive in a rough part of town, he had discovered his quarry, a lone dark elf. Alone and in desperate need of money, the elf had sold Ashur a book that had belonged to his own dead master. Half the book was illegible, but a spell, a incantation of summoning, could still be read. With this spell, the caster could summon a demon to the mortal plane. Ashur was eager to try the spell, but he knew he could not proceed on such a dangerous course without his brothers’ consent. If Bastion felt strongly against it, Ashur said, they would put the book away, and forget about the spell of summoning.

    Bastion smiled at his brother and gave a response that would haunt him the rest of his life. “Together brother, we have mastered every spell we have encountered. This will be no different.”

    A week after, Ashur and Bastion were hard at work in the secret study, drawing up the circle for the summoning. The preparations complete, Ashur directed his brother to stand behind him as he, the stronger of the two, cast the spell.

    From behind his brother, Bastion could not see exactly what went wrong. All he knew was that the room suddenly shook with a massive explosion, and his brother disappeared in a wash of flame. The last thing he saw before the darkness took him was a figure standing in the blaze, a figure that was somehow humanoid and... not at the same time.

    When Bastion came to himself, he was in his own bed. The explosion had rattled the entire estate, and brought the family and servants down into the cellars seeking the source. Following a fiery glow, they had found the secret study. Bastion had been crumpled in the corner, the books lining the walls had burned to ash, and a charred skeleton was all that remained of Ashur Ulbrecht.

    Bastion soon learned that he was held blameless in the whole incident. The fire had destroyed all traces of the summoning attempt, and Gyles had formed a close, but fatally off, theory of events. Ashur, resenting the perceived walls placed before him, had begun to study on his own, and had cowed his little brother in to keeping the secret. A high level spell he had attempted most likely escaped his control, and his brother was caught in the blow back. Bastion, frightened at the thought of what might happen if the truth was known, confirmed this theory as fact.

    Shortly after his brothers’ funeral, Bastion left home. Citing a need to see the world, he left with blessings his family and his master. His true reason was rather darker. Bastion knew he and his brother had summoned something from outside the natural world, and now it was loose in Lodoss. Fearing the demon would come back for him, Bastion hoped to lead it away from his family, and through his traveling, gain the strength and knowledge needed to defeat the thing if and when it returned for him.

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