The Black Knight returns
Name: Rezello Fulsteel-Ashton
Species: Human
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Appearance: Rezello stands at a height of 6'6", or roughly 198 cm.
Bio: Rezello was born in the city of Scheel, along the southern edge of the Leize river in the northern frontier of Westernant. The second son of one of the families within the Fulsteel lineage of House Ashton, Rezello was chosen as a child to be trained as a knight of the Sten Corps - a tradition within House Ashton that would have fallen upon his elder brother, had he not been a sickly child incapable of taking on that responsibility.
Through their childhood and into their teenage years, Rezello and twelve other sons of House Ashton endured rigorous physical training and education, preparing them for the duty of guarding the city against threats both known and potential; the former from the untamed wilderness to the south, and the latter from the tainted lands to the north, across the waters of the river that it had been built along.
On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Rezello and the other knights-in-training were armed and sent into the wilderness to prove their capabilities. Each was tasked with hunting and slaying a great beast before returning with a trophy from its carcass to prove their victory; within the span of a week, Rezello tracked and defeated his target, a giant boar. Returning to the outskirts of the city, he reunited with three other trainees who had completed their mission, awaiting the return of the others.
Once the thirteen were all together again, they headed into the city with their trophies, only to find it seemingly abandoned. Leaving behind the proof of their hunt, they searched Scheel for an indication of where their people had gone, but found nothing. Everything seemed to point to a single conclusion: at some point, while they were outside the city, everyone had simply vanished.
The eldest among them, the first to have returned from his hunt and de-facto leader of the thirteen, was the first to speak, declaring that without people to defend, the Sten Corps had no purpose. They had all earned their knighthood for naught, and on his authority he disbanded their order. Taking up his sword, he left the city, heading south. The remaining twelve soon followed suit, each going their separate ways.
Rezello, dissatisfied with merely abandoning the city to its fate, set out in an attempt to find answers; if none could be found within Scheel, he would simply have to find them elsewhere. There had to have been a time when something at least similar had happened somewhere else, he just had to find a record or sign of it.
Early in his newfound quest, while searching ruins not far from Scheel, he discovered a broken mask within the top floor of an abandoned wizard's tower. Holding it up in the limited light that shone through the tower's window-slits, he suddenly felt compelled to don it; upon returning to his senses, he found it fused to his face. With it came a newfound sense of power, along with a voice he did not recognize; it, however, claimed to recognize him.
Two years ago - a decade after he first set out on his quest - he joined an expedition to Nuria in the heart of the Land of Twilight in a last-ditch effort to find the answers he had spent a decade seeking, having exhausted every other lead and intuition he had. By the end of the expedition, he finally put his search to rest; regardless of whether or not he had found what he was looking for, the former population of Scheel remains vanished, their fate a mystery to most. After the expedition, Rezello briefly retired, his original ten-year mission completed, but found that settling down only made him restless and soon returned to the one thing he truly knew well: adventuring.
When the Order set out to recruit Pontificials for their observation mission, Rezello was seen as a suitable candidate for the role of security; while he didn't have much of a reputation among the general populace, his participation in the Nuria expedition granted him some level of reknown among the various authorities of Westernant. Due to the unique nature of his history, he had the skills of a knight without obligation or connection to any existing political or military entity, and while he wielded a small amount of combat magic it was primarily defensive in nature.
As such, he found himself invited to join the observation party. He accepted.
Passives:
Steeled Blood: The men and women of the Fulsteel lineage inherited the tall stature and robust physique of their progenitor, warrior adventurer Redmond Ashton, granting them enhanced strength and endurance.
Heavy Weapons Specialist: Though trained in all manner of weapons as part of his knighthood, Rezello is especially adept with large two-handed weapons such as halberds, warhammers, and greatswords that make the most of his strength.
Spells:
Armory: Grants access to a small pocket dimension, allowing Rezello to swap out between different weapons he has collected. Only mundane weapons can be used with this spell; those that have been enchanted, made using magic materials, divinely forged, or otherwise enhanced beyond purely physical means cannot be stored.
Rezello can also summon and dismiss a set of armor, though only one can be bound to the spell at a time.
Electric Shell: Emits a surge of lightning magic through the metal in Rezello's armor and weapons, electrifying those in contact with him or struck by his melee attacks. Consumes magic energy slowly while idle and rapidly while affecting a target. Ineffective if the target does not normally conduct electricity.
When using his spadone, Rezello can concentrate the lightning into the sword's blade and release it with an attack; for example, swinging the blade unleashes a short-range wave of lightning, while thrusting launches an arc of lightning in the direction of the thrust.
Hold Ground: Channels earth magic through Rezello's legs and into the ground beneath, anchoring him in place and bracing his body against attempts to move him. Energy consumption is proportional to the amount of force resisted.
While using this spell, Rezello can also harden his body, enhancing his resistance to physical damage.
Conjure Sparks: Produces a small flame, too weak to be used offensively but capable of igniting flammable objects, maintaining warmth, or providing light. Multiple sparks can be combined to increase the size of the flame, but not its power.
The flame can be created anywhere within a small area around Rezello, as long as he can see the point of origin.
Mundane Skills:
Survivalist: At a bare minimum, basic survival skills were expected of all members of the Sten Corps, as defending the city often required them to track beasts and monstrosities through the untamed forests that lie beyond its borders.
Equipment Maintenance: Though the Sten Corps styled itself as a proper order of knights, and were recognized as such within Scheel, in truth they were little more than particularly well-equipped guards. Without elements such as the page and the squire to perform tasks like maintaining equipment, it fell upon the knights to do so, either by hiring servants or learning to do it themselves. Rezello chose the latter.
Equipment:
Fulsteel Spadone: A long, thin two-handed sword. Forged in Scheel as a token of his entry into knighthood from a steel alloy denser than those typically used in swordsmithing. Rezello's preferred weapon.
Weapons of the Armory: Rezello's Armory spell currently contains a messer, a pair of long daggers, a pollaxe, a bec de corbin, and a morningstar.
Sten Corps Armor: Blackened armor, consisting of a mix of plate and mail; pauldrons, gauntlets, half-plate rerebraces and greaves protect the limbs, while the torso is covered by a gambeson, hauberk and green-clothed brigandine. A helmet would also normally be worn, but does not fit over Rezello's mask.
Mask of the Tower: A cursed mask of unusual design, fused to Rezello's face. Rigid, with a leathery texture; the jaw is articulated and can move with Rezello's mouth. A spirit trapped within grants him his magic abilities and claims to be familiar with the Ashton bloodline.
Species: Human
Age: 29
Gender: Male
Appearance: Rezello stands at a height of 6'6", or roughly 198 cm.
Bio: Rezello was born in the city of Scheel, along the southern edge of the Leize river in the northern frontier of Westernant. The second son of one of the families within the Fulsteel lineage of House Ashton, Rezello was chosen as a child to be trained as a knight of the Sten Corps - a tradition within House Ashton that would have fallen upon his elder brother, had he not been a sickly child incapable of taking on that responsibility.
Through their childhood and into their teenage years, Rezello and twelve other sons of House Ashton endured rigorous physical training and education, preparing them for the duty of guarding the city against threats both known and potential; the former from the untamed wilderness to the south, and the latter from the tainted lands to the north, across the waters of the river that it had been built along.
On the eve of his seventeenth birthday, Rezello and the other knights-in-training were armed and sent into the wilderness to prove their capabilities. Each was tasked with hunting and slaying a great beast before returning with a trophy from its carcass to prove their victory; within the span of a week, Rezello tracked and defeated his target, a giant boar. Returning to the outskirts of the city, he reunited with three other trainees who had completed their mission, awaiting the return of the others.
Once the thirteen were all together again, they headed into the city with their trophies, only to find it seemingly abandoned. Leaving behind the proof of their hunt, they searched Scheel for an indication of where their people had gone, but found nothing. Everything seemed to point to a single conclusion: at some point, while they were outside the city, everyone had simply vanished.
The eldest among them, the first to have returned from his hunt and de-facto leader of the thirteen, was the first to speak, declaring that without people to defend, the Sten Corps had no purpose. They had all earned their knighthood for naught, and on his authority he disbanded their order. Taking up his sword, he left the city, heading south. The remaining twelve soon followed suit, each going their separate ways.
Rezello, dissatisfied with merely abandoning the city to its fate, set out in an attempt to find answers; if none could be found within Scheel, he would simply have to find them elsewhere. There had to have been a time when something at least similar had happened somewhere else, he just had to find a record or sign of it.
Early in his newfound quest, while searching ruins not far from Scheel, he discovered a broken mask within the top floor of an abandoned wizard's tower. Holding it up in the limited light that shone through the tower's window-slits, he suddenly felt compelled to don it; upon returning to his senses, he found it fused to his face. With it came a newfound sense of power, along with a voice he did not recognize; it, however, claimed to recognize him.
Two years ago - a decade after he first set out on his quest - he joined an expedition to Nuria in the heart of the Land of Twilight in a last-ditch effort to find the answers he had spent a decade seeking, having exhausted every other lead and intuition he had. By the end of the expedition, he finally put his search to rest; regardless of whether or not he had found what he was looking for, the former population of Scheel remains vanished, their fate a mystery to most. After the expedition, Rezello briefly retired, his original ten-year mission completed, but found that settling down only made him restless and soon returned to the one thing he truly knew well: adventuring.
When the Order set out to recruit Pontificials for their observation mission, Rezello was seen as a suitable candidate for the role of security; while he didn't have much of a reputation among the general populace, his participation in the Nuria expedition granted him some level of reknown among the various authorities of Westernant. Due to the unique nature of his history, he had the skills of a knight without obligation or connection to any existing political or military entity, and while he wielded a small amount of combat magic it was primarily defensive in nature.
As such, he found himself invited to join the observation party. He accepted.
Passives:
Steeled Blood: The men and women of the Fulsteel lineage inherited the tall stature and robust physique of their progenitor, warrior adventurer Redmond Ashton, granting them enhanced strength and endurance.
Heavy Weapons Specialist: Though trained in all manner of weapons as part of his knighthood, Rezello is especially adept with large two-handed weapons such as halberds, warhammers, and greatswords that make the most of his strength.
Spells:
Armory: Grants access to a small pocket dimension, allowing Rezello to swap out between different weapons he has collected. Only mundane weapons can be used with this spell; those that have been enchanted, made using magic materials, divinely forged, or otherwise enhanced beyond purely physical means cannot be stored.
Rezello can also summon and dismiss a set of armor, though only one can be bound to the spell at a time.
Electric Shell: Emits a surge of lightning magic through the metal in Rezello's armor and weapons, electrifying those in contact with him or struck by his melee attacks. Consumes magic energy slowly while idle and rapidly while affecting a target. Ineffective if the target does not normally conduct electricity.
When using his spadone, Rezello can concentrate the lightning into the sword's blade and release it with an attack; for example, swinging the blade unleashes a short-range wave of lightning, while thrusting launches an arc of lightning in the direction of the thrust.
Hold Ground: Channels earth magic through Rezello's legs and into the ground beneath, anchoring him in place and bracing his body against attempts to move him. Energy consumption is proportional to the amount of force resisted.
While using this spell, Rezello can also harden his body, enhancing his resistance to physical damage.
Conjure Sparks: Produces a small flame, too weak to be used offensively but capable of igniting flammable objects, maintaining warmth, or providing light. Multiple sparks can be combined to increase the size of the flame, but not its power.
The flame can be created anywhere within a small area around Rezello, as long as he can see the point of origin.
Mundane Skills:
Survivalist: At a bare minimum, basic survival skills were expected of all members of the Sten Corps, as defending the city often required them to track beasts and monstrosities through the untamed forests that lie beyond its borders.
Equipment Maintenance: Though the Sten Corps styled itself as a proper order of knights, and were recognized as such within Scheel, in truth they were little more than particularly well-equipped guards. Without elements such as the page and the squire to perform tasks like maintaining equipment, it fell upon the knights to do so, either by hiring servants or learning to do it themselves. Rezello chose the latter.
Equipment:
Fulsteel Spadone: A long, thin two-handed sword. Forged in Scheel as a token of his entry into knighthood from a steel alloy denser than those typically used in swordsmithing. Rezello's preferred weapon.
Weapons of the Armory: Rezello's Armory spell currently contains a messer, a pair of long daggers, a pollaxe, a bec de corbin, and a morningstar.
Sten Corps Armor: Blackened armor, consisting of a mix of plate and mail; pauldrons, gauntlets, half-plate rerebraces and greaves protect the limbs, while the torso is covered by a gambeson, hauberk and green-clothed brigandine. A helmet would also normally be worn, but does not fit over Rezello's mask.
Mask of the Tower: A cursed mask of unusual design, fused to Rezello's face. Rigid, with a leathery texture; the jaw is articulated and can move with Rezello's mouth. A spirit trapped within grants him his magic abilities and claims to be familiar with the Ashton bloodline.