Sengo
Male Half-elf Beggar
Physical Description
Age: appears around 30, although the ravages of the disease make him look older
Hair: dirty white medium-length hair tucked back into a Tian queue.
Eyes: crimson
Build: his dark powerfully muscular body is lined with scars and pockmarks, in battle he moves with a lithe grace
Height: 5' 9"
Weight: 145 lbs
Clothing: he wears worn beggar clothing and leans on a smooth bo staff that can unlock into a three piece rod (Sansetsukon)
Appearance: Ravaged by disease, he hunches in pain within his beggars clothing. Used to ridicule, he moves through the city with a slight hobble. He often sleeps in the debris littered alleys. When he does meet your eyes, you see a hint of buried anger.
Personality
Habits:
Tea: He drinks a bitter Tian tea that Wu Pyan provides him the herbs for. This tea helps dull the pain of his affliction.
Nervous tell: When he finds himself forced to be social, he unconsciously rubs a small brass medallion of Iomedae. He listened from a nearby alley as a missionary spoke of such ideals as valor and justice. It stirred something within his scarred body and he later found the medallion, left behind after the preacher moved on.
Raspy: He speaks in a raspy voice, due to the ravages of the disease.
Course: Used to being avoided and judged for his appearance, he assumes that others find him distasteful, protecting himself by being gruff and unfriendly.
Stubborn: When he sets his mind to a task, there is little that will dissuade him from his goals.
Temper: Sengo has a hatred of those who prey on the innocent.
Altruistic: Having felt the hopelessness of the poor personally, and then to witness the generosity of Wy Pyan, he does what he can to help the poor and helpless in turn.
Loyal: It is rare he makes friends, but when he does, hs is willing to give his life for those he cares for.
Scarred: Horrible scars cause many to avoid Sengo. It is easy to remember him once his scars are seen. He lives in constant pain from the ravages that the disease did to his body.
Destitute: Sengo lives in rags and sleeps in the streets. The city watch have little interest in protecting those like him.
Guardian: He will do anything to protect his adopted daughter, Naoibe.
Current Activity
Missing Daughter: Sengo suspects that his adopted daughter, Naoibe, has been abducted by Gaedren. He has heard rumors about Gaedren's "Little Lamms," and of how the old man uses children as pickpockets and agents for his crimes. He has even heard rumors that Naoibe has been spotted in the marketplace in the company of others known to be cutpurses and pickpockets. Sengo doesn't understand how this can be so, siunce Naoibe has always been very strong-willed, yet this Gaedren must have something held over her. The Korvosa Guard listened when he told them about it, but clearly has their hands full with "more important" matters these days, it seems, and has not yet been able to learn anything more about Gaedren. No one else is interested in bringing Gaedren down and rescuing his victims, so the task falls to Sengo. Yet where could the old scoundrel be hiding? Naoibe was abducted during one of their rare times apart, insisting she wanted to go get water for Wu Pyan by herself this time. When she didn't return, Sengo went looking. Long hours spent searching for rumors and his stubborn will to continue has steeled his resolve.
Days: 0
Capital: Goods: , Influence: , Labor: , Magic:
Fame: 0
Sphere of Influence: Shingles (Old Korvosa)
Prestige Points: 0
Harrowing Points: 1+#players? (Reroll initiative check, reflex save, dex attack roll or dex-based check; +1 dodge bonus (up to +3) for one encounter; speed increase by 10 ft)
Family: Due to the ravages of the disease that scarred him, Sengo lost all memory from before 5 years ago.
Wu Pyan Lu: Sengo's Tian mentor.
Honored Fist of the Society: Sengo has studied dozens of ancient texts on martial arts that only the Tian possess, and are more learned in these arts than most.
Martial Manuscript: He has memorized a sacred text that Wu Pyan Lu shared with him, and its wisdom gives him insight that makes his attacks more devastating.
Ancestral Arms: Wu Pyan Lu entrusted his family's ancestral urumi to Sengo, to use in honor.
Naoibe: adopted young Mwangi girl
Home District: Shingles in Old Korvosa
Agony, that was all that he felt as his body shuddered and spasmed. What felt like burning acid pumped through his blood vessels, as he wretched violently in the filth-covered alleyway. Desperate to escape the excruciating pain, he forced his body to crawl towards the mouth of the alleyway, reaching a trembling pock-covered hand towards a liveried city guard in the sun-drenched street. "Help me.. please.." he rasped as tremors started shaking him once more. The man looked down at him and recoiled sharply with a sneer of disdain, "Get away from me leper." Other townsfolk looked towards the alley, and upon seeing his huddled form on the alleys cobblestones, swiftly hurried away. A groan, filled with bloody black-flecked froth, forced its way from his torn lips as his vision darkened and he collapsed completely. The bone wrenching pain washed over him in a wave and he knew no more.
When his awareness returned, the burning sensation on his skin was mixed with a stomach clenching spasm of hunger. A soft spoken voice intruded on his weary thoughts. "You are hurt. Let me help. My name is Wu Pyan Lu." Opening his crusted eyes to the flickering light of a storm lamp, he looked up to see a elderly Tian man crouching next to him and offering him a hand. Climbing to his feet with Wu Pyan's aid, he strove to fight off the pain which threatened to dissolve his vision once more, and succeeded in staggering out of the alley.
Wu Pyan brought him to a small shack in Bridgefront, and brewed a cup of bitter Tian tea. Offering the tea, the old man looked to him with a kind, but penetrating gaze. "I can see you Ki is unbalanced. What's your name?" At first, it was all he could to drink the tea without spilling it from his pain clenched hands. Then, he felt the pain receding as the tea's medicine did it's work. With a ragged breath, he focused on the question. Who was he? Such a simple questions, and yet he struggled to piece together a memory, any memory. He couldn't remember his past, what city he was in, anything. Images danced at the edge of his thoughts, jumbled and confusing... and then one memory finally came into focus.. A gnome Academae student, Rolth, seated in a pub and offering a drink from a copper flask with a inlaid symbol of a dragon. A knowing smirk passing the gnomes lips as he felt his heart suddenly spasm with the taste of the flask's contents...
Anger boiled through him, burning the lingering pain away as he realized he had been intentionally infected by something from that wretched gnome. Then his body spasmed once more and a coughing fit shook his frame.. but he had remembered one more thing.. his name.. Sengo. Brushing blood from his lips, he looked up to Wu Pyan and rasped "Thank you for your kindness. I am Sengo, although I don't remember much else." Something in his demeaner, perhaps his will to express his thanks, even in the midst of his pain touched the elderly Tian. Making a decision, Wu Pyan nodded, "You will stay here Sengo. You have need of aid, and I have need of a student."
Two years passed as Sengo came to terms with his new life in the Bridgefront district of Old Korvosa, the only life he now had. Sengo had survived the deadly disease, released on him by Rolth, but his body would never be the same. Pain continues to rack his body, his voice a raspy ruin of what it may have been, and pockmarks and scars cover his dark skin, skin which speaks of a drow heritage in his past. How many of the scars, he wondered, did he have before the disease. Destitute, with only the rags that he had awoken in and living on the streets, he swiftly learned how cruel and uncaring others could be. They saw his heritage, his tattered clothing, and his pocked skin.. and assumed they knew everything there was worth knowing about him. He would no doubt have lost his way, but his frequent visits with Wu Pyan taught him of another way. He learned of the code of bushido, of kindness, of rigid self-control and discipline, and as time passed, Wu Pyan taught him the ancient martial arts from his homeland. Sengo wondered what had brought Wu Pyan so far from his Tian Xia, but he knew that the old man would tell him if he wished.
Fate was not yet done with Sengo, as he found out what cold wind-whipped twilight. He was headed to Wu Pyan's shack, carrying water jugs suspended from a pole across his shoulders, when he heard coarse laughter of men.. the sound reminding him of jackles scenting a kill to play with. Setting down the jugs and striding towards the noise, he rounded a turn into a alley to see three burly young Scarni toughs surrounding a young Mwangi girl. The black-haired girl, perhaps 10 years old, stood in the middle of the toughs, unafraid and with spirit flashing in her eyes. "You really think you can take whatever you want from me? Fine, come and try, and we'll see what manhood is left of you." She had no weapon, no way to defend herself against the toughs, but she didn't show a ounce of fear as she braced herself. Sengo couldn't help but admire her steely resolve, which swiftly changed to a protective surge of anger as the Scarni youths hefted clubs and closed on her. Without a moments hesitation, he charged them with a harsh Kia that tore his throat, snapping the bo staff apart into the three-piece rod (Sansetsukon) and engaging them. A short, vicious tussle later and one of the youths lay bleeding unconscious on the ground as the other two bruised ruffians fled. The girl, still in her ready stance, looked at him suspiciously, but didn't pull away from him as so many did. Sengo nodded to her and rasped "It looked like they needed a lesson in manners. My name is Sengo." He braced himself for the look of disgust that he encountered so often, and was surprised when a smile came easily to her lips as she tossed her hair back in a very girl-like gesture. Boldly walking up to him she said, "My name is Naoibe. You know of a place I can find something to eat?". From that point on, the two of them were rarely away from one another as they struggled to stay alive on the streets. They watched each others backs, and slowly, Sengo started to see her as his adopted daughter.. watching over her as Wu Pyan had done for him.
When the two of them finished carrying the water to Wu Pyan's shack and shared their story, the elderly Tian smiled and nodded. The next day, he presented Sengo with a ornately engraved Tian ururi (whip sword), "This is Jasutisu no jihi, my family's sword, wielded in honor throughout my lineage. You will now be it's protector and wield it with the same honor that you showed last night in helping one in need." Sengo was stunned, and reverently accepted the sword, vowing to wield it in honor whenever it would be drawn. Knowing how valuable the weapon is, he keeps it hidden, wrapped around his waist under his tattered clothes.
Jasutisu no jihi: umuri (whip sword) placed in trust with Sengo by Wu Pyan Yul.
Over the three years that followed, Sengo and his adopted daughter lived among the poor in Bridgefront in Old Korvosa. Urban renewal projects pushed them up into the Shingles, where they found places to squat as best they could. Then something happened that brought more pain and anguish to him, than even the continued ache of his ravaged body.
