Kurtis Kerner

CHARACTER DESCRIPTION

Name: Kurtis D. Kerner

Weight: 165 pounds (about 74 kilograms)

Height: 6 ft 1 inch (182 cm)

Age: 27

Eyes: sickening pale blue. Shifty, sly, other times maniacally evil. Vision – 100%, capable of being an accurate shot.

Hair: spiky, messy, standing up, artificially dyed sunlight blonde.

Face: a once handsome face with high cheekbones and a sharp balanced nose is now marked with a small scar on his right cheek. Sensual lips, neatly placed eye brows, this young man sure is a lady charmer. His smile is a row of perfect white, often in a toothy professional grin.

Body: pale, thin, slim and slender. Rather narrow shouldered, and slightly femininely built. Not a typical muscular man, looks more like a runner-swimmer kind of guy, not a heavy athlete. Being miniature, he is still in good shape. Wired thin muscles run down like tubes, down his arms and legs. He has long thin fingers, very sensitive to touch. He is less fragile than he looks to be, however. What he loses in strength, he makes up in endurance, accuracy and speed.

Clothes: prefers dark colors, but generally has no notion of style. For work – black tight suits. Leisure – anything roomy on top and tight in the bottom. Pullovers, sweaters, shirts, often a jacket, brown suade or black leather.

EARLY HISTORY IN BRIEF

Kurtis Kerner has been a professional thief since he was thirteen. He grew up in an orphanage, being told that he was the son of a prostitute and a shoemaker. His parents rejected him when he was only two years old, and he spent his childhood among other orphans, learning the mentality of a “noble rogue”.

The gifted young man discovered a rich potential, a combination of intelligence, sharp wit, high perception, and physique, and kept using it to get better and better, though his friends, what was left of them, thought that he was wasting it with a wrong trade. Quite early in his life he recognized his talents – finger dexterity, ability to sneak, hold breath, strong, mental grasp, attention to detail, adaptation, ability to sense people, their reactions, spontaneous conversation; and finally, complete lack of guilt. When he first walked out of a convenience store with a full surround sound stereo system, 6 CD changer, with speakers in the middle of the night, he knew he was good.

Kurtis discovered his flaws as well – laziness was on the top of the list. Young Kurtis hated manual labor and any form of work. “Easiest thing to do is to steal” was his life creed. His second and most vital weakness were women. Ever since he grew a full sized dick, he had to be around them, charm them, get them to laugh, and once the goalkeeper surrendered and the point was scored, leave them to wake up in the cooling sheets. Fair to say he was good at it, but so was every sleaze ball in the 90s.

Like any crook good at his trade, he got sucked into bigger deals. He got noticed by local outlaws and slowly got hooked up with some serious employers. The elder wolves introduced Kurt to some powerful secrets, like picking advanced locks, and breaking into heavily armed vaults, bypassing electronic security and alarm systems. The best lesson he learned, however, was: no one is superhuman. A thief is to stay realistic and never to become bold. “You cannot bypass all the doors, cannot hack all the locks. Some things are just not meant to be stolen, some things just need to be given up and passed…. No matter how luring, oh how luring they are” said his vor mentor. Kurtis dreamt of bigger jobs constantly. Daily exercises in picking pockets on the city markets and cheating crooks in card games were merely a routine. He needed more.

One time he got completely bored and followed a man into the City Mall, where he took out his car keys, and went back to the man’s car, took off in it while the man was shopping, and abandoned the car in the outskirts between Seattle and Tacoma when it ran out of gas. No fingerprints were found, although the car was. Boredom. He knew he was good, still never too cocky to make a mistake. Survival comes with price of caution – he was aware of that. With the money he made on small time deals, he enrolled himself into college to seek a degree of associates of applied science in the field of network technology, but never finished it, school bored him to death. He needed the romantic action and suspense, the thrill of being “on the job”.

Finally, his first real assignment, paid solid. He stole a painting in the Seattle Asian Art Museum and replaced it with a replica. The operation was a success, although he almost got caught. The painting was sold for several million, with one million being Kurt’s cut. That’s when the street rat became somewhat wealthy. Living in a condo on Mercer Island and driving a brand new black Supra spoiled the man silly.

Like most criminals with enough of money, Kurtis got himself into drugs. His meth days did not last long, he got straight to cocaine. Afraid of heroin for its rumored addictiveness, the idiot for some reason thought that coke will be safer to have some fun with, and sure enough got addicted. Though being able to withdraw from it for a month or two, he has violent cravings that last several days every now and then until he inhales some more.

AWAKENING

Kurtis lived his young years guided by stereotypes. He did not bother to get to know people beyond what they seemed to be. Pimp, hooker, dealer, loser, fattie, preppie, suit, cop, bum, junkie. Those are the terms he operated and based his world around it, fitting himself somewhere within the 'solid pro' stereotype. Events of his Awakening night would change his perception forever.

Soon after Kurt's successful theft of a prized 16th century painting, his usual job contact notified him that he will be receiving a call from a new customer. The customer called the next day from a protected number, introducing himself as Mister Jones. Kurtis did not expect to learn anything more real about his identity, so they skipped directly to the job offer. The job itself involved procuring a mystical book from a specialized book store, but it was bought that very evening by a female journalist doing research on occult topics. Kurtis tracked the lady down and executed a semi-planned impromptu larceny nearly face to face.

Bringing the book home, he celebrated victory and got drunk and high. After taking a nice warm shower, he went out to the balcony to have another smoke and gazed at the stars, contemplating calling up some hookers. His attention was caught by the book he brought home, as it appeared to radiate a strange glimmer. The sky got covered in clouds, and a storm broke out in the night, lightings striking in the matching rhythm to the book's pulse. Frightened and curious, the burglar took the book in his hands, as a lightning bolt stuck him on his head.

Planets turned and the sun went up like a golden disk with an imprinted face and a booming unison of voices forming a choir. Kurtis saw a ladder leading from his balcony into the sky. He climbed further and further until the ladder vanished in the clouds, then he climbed amongst the clouds from one to another and celestial beings of pure fire, light, and energy flew around him, reaching out to him. He figured that he was dead and somehow, barring all logic, ended up in heaven, so he went up further looking for St. Peter. What he found instead was a bizarre and scary re-enactment of his own spirituality, with a figure changing shapes, shifting from one blank stereotype to another: a lovely luring whore made of light, shifting into a junkie begging for spare change to buy crack, shifting into an image of a dealer, offering lightning and sparks in a little plastic bag, a police officer, aiming a gun at Kurt, having caught him with a painting in a museum, and finally, the last and most vivid vision, clouds became solid asphalt, painting in his hands became a book, and the police officer turned around and became a man in a white suit with dark hair and a black beard, aiming a silenced pistol, and firing into Kurtis's head. Mister Jones.

Kurtis closed his eyes and screamed, but the bullet stopped, and before him arose a colossal tower, one of the Five Watchtowers of the Supernal world. It was bigger than anything realistically imaginable, seeming to loom over the world through the clouds, so surreally massive that from its stairs he could see above the tallest mountains of a world that seemed alien as well, with spaces so big and empty and wide that no perception could possibly grasp them. His reality senses skewed, as he saw four more towers rising in the distant fog, seeming to be thousands of miles away. Fatigued, he treaded the massive stairwells in a state of what seemed a time stop. Upon the walls of the tower he saw millions of names, handwritten or hand scraped in various styles and utensils, some in a hurry, others with calm and precise calligraphy. Some of the names he recognized among them: Archimedes of Syracuse, Joseph Lagrange, Marie Curie, Thomas Edison, Igor Kurchatov, Nikola Tesla.

Reaching the top of the tower took several hundred years, or perhaps just a few minutes, it felt like forever, like one of those dreams which make people unsure of how much time they have really slept. Before too long the figure in white appeared again, and he was back against the bullet heading for his head. The clouds beneath his feet were sinking and the fog started to rise. He felt a sense of doom, and hastily wrote his name on the wall of the tower with the burning end of his cigarette, which melted it in the stone. In a flash he was back on his balcony with a copper key in his hand and without a clue.

Next morning everything went to hell. The job itself turned out to be a setup, the case turned sour, and the journalist ended up being the client's daughter. In addition, instead of a promised million dollars, Mister Jones prepared a handy bullet to the head of the foolish greedy thief. Luckily for him, Kurtis was snatched out of the death's clutches before he had the chance to meet his fateful rendezvous.

He was intercepted by two delightful individuals: the brilliant medical doctor Kassidy Renyard and curious naturalist field biologist Anthony Ferril. The two bright minded individuals made Kurtis look like a mumbling lecherous fool, and revealed themselves to be Mages, explaining the true meaning of what brought them together - the fateful book.

Thus, Kurtis himself was forced to believe and accept that he as well became a mage. That very day, the newly awakened Tony and Kurtis heard the sad news of their lives being crippled, as Tony's office and Kurtis's condo were set on fire and lain waste to. With clearly presented indication of an outside force trying to destroy his life, Kurt, alongside Tony, pledged allegiance to Kassandra, and she was nice enough to agree on becoming their mentor. The two became his first and closest real friends, teaching him the ability to trust and give unconditionally. Thus began the hunt for Mister Jones, and in the midst of it, discovery of three more copies of the book existing in the same matter, but split in space and time. The team had to travel to California to discover three more newly awakened mages with trouble on their behinds.

After finding Tristin Lang, Robin Lexar, and Roger Ortiz, returning to New Haven, visiting the gypsies, stealing money from vampires, taking down a platoon of zombies, setting a house on fire, visiting the Fae Hedge and The Spirit Realm, and getting a lot of people pissed off ((often including the marvelous GM Claire, to whom I sincerely apologize and bring hundreds of string cheese!)), Kurtis, Tony, and Kassie met their decisive adventure. They faced off against Mister Jones and successfully defeated him, albeit losing Roger, who joined the dark side and was left at the doorstep of Fae world.

FORMING THE RUMORED FIVE

Work In progress

AFTERMATH

At this point we meet Kurtis. It’s been a few months since the last job. He is waiting for something new to come, so he keeps himself sober and clean for now, but any time the new craving may kick in. Still, a possibility of a coming job demands a clear mind.

KNOWN FRIENDS, ASSOCIATES, ALLIES:

Kassidy Renyard - Thyrsus, mentor and early romantic interest. When Kurt was just barely awakened as a mage and had no controllable powers, Kassidy saved his life despite his annoying and grumpy attempts to think he knew what he was doing. She taught, supported, and protected him for the duration of the learning process, and later on while he accumulated knowledge and grew power. Her Haven Hollow, a large cabin in the woods out of town was the first base of operation and study for Kurt and his new friends. Kurt's style and personality are largely inspired by Kassidy's lust for life and stubborn determination, though he lacks the level headed approach which balanced her out. Kurt is entirely supportive and grateful towards Kassidy.

Eve Kline - Moros, a CSI agent, death mages, and necromancer. Persistent primary romantic interest. Eve and Kurt met when the Aurora Casino front of a vampire/mage union organization lead by Hannah Feneghan attempted to assemble a team of low level mages for a stealthy extraction mission (Gem of the Kings chapter). Kurt and Eve have many things in common, but have just as many differences. They share a common magical discipline of Prime, but their functional approach to primary powers are almost opposite on biological level. While working great in team, there is a noticeable sexual tension between them, and a good bit of history, including a disastrous miscarriage. Overall, both of them are too dark and distorted to be truly satisfied with a committed peaceful family life, and their bond is often a love-hate relationship which represents the eternal conflict and need for speed. Kurt is jealously protective of Eve, and revels in his dominance.

Anthony Ferril - Thyrsus, a field biologist with a naturalistic and somewhat misanthropic outlook on life and society. He believes that laws of nature are a better guide than morals, and he is fairly strict in exercising that philosophy. Tony awakened a day before Kurt, and was the first of the original Five. He holds the 1st space-time copy of Gates to Atlantis Book, the original book, which Kurt's copy is second to, making it the only Book that can transmit to Kurt's. Anthony has a magical familiar, a creature of the Primal Wild called Uchawi, taking shape of a parrot and often providing comfort and advice to Anthony, as well as bestowing flight upon him when he enters Spirit Realm. During the Five's search for the Gem of Kings, Anthony's mind overloaded, and he gained a phobia of shattering glass. He is making successful step by step recovery in the Five's Haven, and his belongings, along with his Book are well protected.

Tristin Lang - Acanthus, a 17 year old Chinese martial artist who can stop and control time. Kurt's close friend and partner in crime. Raised a thief, he shares the rogue background with Kurt, but after having cheated the Aurora Casino for 22,000 dollars using their mage powers, and pissed off a bunch of vampires who ran the place, decided to quit crime. The incident overall worked out in their favor, as Aurora offered them employment as part of a deal to forgive the debt. Kurt is a bit of a mentor figure for Tristin, because they can easily relate. They often rode around in Kurt's Supra and smoked marijuana. Tristin is impulsive and often irrational, thus providing Kurt with a third person perspective to reflect upon his own hotheadedness. Tristin dealt the final incapacitating blow to Mister Jones by jump-kicking him in the face, thus earning a rightful rank as the physical muscle of the group. In Egypt Tristin acquired his signature weapon that resonates with his Path - an ancient dagger he named Ediphon, which in reality is one of the nine sibling weapons belonging to the first nine chronomasters. Tristin owns the 3rd time-space copy of Gates to Atlantis, next in line after Kurtis's copy.

Robin Lexar - Mastigos, a 19 year old meth addicted mind-space mage. Love interest of Tristin. Carries an imbued path tool - a baseball bat. Robin is a pale, skinny, somewhat sickly built girl, often prone to being tired and slothful. She was the original member of the first incarnation of the Five, but later retired and parted ways with the group, not interested in mercenary work. Robin holds the 4th copy of Gates to Atlantis. Kurt and Robin keep in touch over distance.

Dante Faustus Canavacciuolo - Mastigos, a later member of the Five, who joined the team during their quest around the world in search of the Gem. Kurt's closest friend for the time being. Dante is Italian, and lived in Rome all his life, serving as an officer in a prison facility. A violent, nightmarish and powerful awakening accidentally put him at odds with the Guardians of the Veil, who tried to interrupt it and kill him before he could develop. The Five sensed his awakening when they stayed in Rome, and found him, realizing they have a common enemy. Dante was trained in mastery of Mind Control, and eventually replaced Robin Lexar as the team's Mastigos, judging himself fit to live a life of an enterpreneur. Along with Kurt, Eve, Kassidy, and Tristin - Dante moved to Rogue Islands. Dante is a collected and thoughtful opposite of Kurt, he is scholarly and studious. He counters Kurt's explosive action-oriented behavior with passive analysis. Dante is the primary designer and source of the Five's collective protective mental shield, and, due to his mastery of the Mind Arcanum, often serves as a telepathic hub for the rest to communicate. Dante holds the 5th and last copy of Gates to Atlantis, which used to belong to Roger Ortiz, but after Roger's exile, spent some time in The Hedge. This book is the last in the time-space link, so it cannot transmit changes to other books, but seems to be different and contains strange qualities due to the influences it absorbed while in the world of fae.

Knox Industries- Information classified.