Laurie Keet

Laurie Keet

Laurie was born on the Western edge of the Central Safe Zone, in a village abutting the Vastness itself. A son of a farrier and a sempster, he displayed a knack for negotiation and salesmanship from an early age. He was most taken with the merchants that travelled in caravans up and down the edge of the desert. The mixture of travel and dealing with familiar, friendly faces everywhere he went appealed to him. As soon as he reached age 16, he set out to make a career for himself in the same vein.
His first apprenticeship met an early end when his master passed away unexpectedly a little over a year into the apprenticeship. Keet was now a little too old to be taken on as an apprentice by any of the other traders, so he was forced to set out on his own. In 4AJ, during a time when he was struggling to make ends meet, he overheard a group of scholars and mages discussing a project they were involved with in the desert. He inveigled his way into their party and went to see what they had found.
They had uncovered the remains of an ancient wizard's tower. With most of the books and scrolls rendered unreadable by age, the researchers were forced to reconstruct what had taken place there based on the more permanent runes etched into the arcane apparatus. They were able to establish that their initial assumption that the tower pre-dated the desert was incorrect; rather the tower had been built far from the nearest settlement on purpose, in case of magical accident. In the course of their experimentation, something was activated by accident. The resultant magical maelstrom whipped up a sandstorm that reburied the remains of the tower, killed two-thirds of the party and destroyed their supplies. The survivors, Keet amongst them, realised that they had no water, and that all the mages with the ability to conjure it had been killed. The magic items they had used to travel were buried or destroyed. They immediately abandoned everything on a desperate march to the edge of the desert.
Although he wanted to stay with them, the others insisted that Keet went on ahead. As the only surviving huītzilōpōchtli, his better travelling speed meant he could cover much more ground than the rest could. He was to get to safety early and bring rescue, if he could. After five days, he collapsed outside a village just before dawn. He came round from his KO eleven hours later, and was able to ask his rescuers to look for the others in the desert. After five and half days, however, the chances of survival were very slim. Despite two weeks of searching, no trace of them was ever found.
In the following weeks, as he regained his strength, Keet discovered that the magical storm had changed him. Quite by accident, he discovered that, with a willing partner, he could trade more than mere physical objects. The first incident was when, during a friendly round of runes, his opponent joked "If I buy you a drink, will you let me have your luck?". Not only did Keet lose every game for the rest of the evening, but he kept losing in the following days. Not quite believing it, he tried swapping something else - paying someone for their ability to play the flute. The one-time flautist's sudden inability to play meant that suspicion fell on Keet and he had to flee.
Since then, he has had to abandon his idea of trading up and down the same route near his home. His tentative experimentation with this mysterious power has made him a few enemies. He consequently now prefers to travel to places he hasn't been before. Lacking any other way of finding out what has happened to him, he plans to visit Skyhammer and see if one of the learned mages there can explain it. Assuming, of course, Keet feels he can trust that mage.

Physical Description

Identifying Characteristics

He has bright red and yellow feathers across his body and a small fan tail. The red colour is more prominent on his head and torso, with his arms, legs and tails favouring the yellow. He has dyed his hair red to match his feathers.

Special abilities

Every Morsel a Feast
Beautiful Plumage
One Quiet Night

Mental characteristics

Gender Identity

Male 'he/him'

Employment

Vagabond

Species

Huītzilōpōchtli

Year of Birth

22 BJ 29 Years old

Gender

Male