Jeffery IV

Jeffery IV

My name is Jeffery the IV (everyone calls me Jeff), I am a fifth generation Blood Hunter. I do not tell people that because people look at me like I am a devil worshipper because I study in the art Hemocraft. Hemocraft is a form of magic using blood to manipulate the life forces of others. The history is long and brutal, it was first learned by Trence Orman, a priest of the Raven Queen. He learned this deadly magic to fend off the fiends and undead set upon his land Marrow Valley. Some who practice this magic dedicate their life to eliminating monsters and other evil forces. Orman founded the Claret order, and they specialized in just that. There were also others who went to a darker and evil life and founded other orders throughout the years. Hemocraft did not only cause harm, but it also could be used to heal and manipulate life for good as well. My story starts in a small-town west of the Lake of Steam called Abbor, on the edge of the Forest of Mir. I lived with my father Jeffery the III in a little house in the town. Until I was 4, my father helped dispatch monsters that wandered down from the forest. He helped the neighboring towns and villages too, one day he made a deadly mistake when he was out on a job to hunt a Dryad that has been slaughtering anyone trying to harvest the red morel mushrooms that grow in the area. My father was caught in the act of slitting his wrists to conjurer a creature to help fight the Dryad as Hemocraft required blood to work. The villager that saw this was mortified and ran back to the village and told the other villagers. We were lucky we were not burned alive or sacrificed to purify the ground we walked on. The people must have felt some sort of sympathy as the banished us with threats of death. We left at once with only what we could carry. I remember the long journey east as a harsh and exhausting one. I was only 4 and my father told me I would start my ritual early. He made me walk with half our gear the entire 1000 miles to a small island in the Lake of Steam called Olodel. Children in the craft usually started the Hunters Bane Ritual at 10 years old. I was almost 5 when I started. When we got to the island my father sat patiently as I cut trees with an axe and raked dirt with my hands to start the building of our new house. Every day for 6 months I worked until I was gashed and bleeding. My hands bled for days, and I sustained many bad injuries over those months, my father did nothing to help my injuries and would only help me carry logs that were too heavy for me to drag. 8 months into this slow suicide I split my forearm open with a jagged chunk of wood. Blood hemorrhaged from the large gaping hole in my arm as my artery was ripped apart. I began to scream, and my father began to laugh a deep laugh as if he had just seen the greatest thing of his life. I looked at him worried as I began to get very wobbly, he smiled and said “soon,” I passed out. When I woke up, I was on my knees slumped over. As my vision adjusted to see in the darkness, I noticed I was kneeling in a small ritual circle with 2 fresh rat heads in front of me. My father was covered in blood, holding a dissected adolescent tortle. He then tossed the mangled body aside and welcomed me back. He asked if I was ready, and I nodded (I was terrified). He began to speak a deep chant and I looked at my arm as it melded itself back together. It then burst into flames startling my father, I began to panic because my father began to panic. I then felt pain, pain like nothing I have ever felt. It felt as if I was dragged across the sun until my body was torn apart. All I could hear were the screams, my screams and I could see my father sobbing on his knees as his little boy was consumed in golden flames. Next, I was completely engulfed in flames, and I could see nothing. The pain began to subside except for the terrible stabbing pains in my shoulders. I stood up and was able to walk out of the fire. As I did, my father stood and looked at me in astonishment. Hed said nothing, turned and ran into the house, coming out a moment later with a mirror as I looked at myself, I was completely unharmed, and the stabbing pain was 2 giant black feathered wings ripping their way through my skin. My father's worried face turned proud and amazed. He told me what had happened was exceedingly rare and usually marks the beginning of something big. One night when I was 11 my father and I went out on a hunt and ran into a Wastrilith, my father was forced to use a powerful spell that required a large sacrifice of blood and later after the battle we both noticed he was not regaining his blood like he should. Jeffery the III died that night in his sleep. I stayed on the island because I was only a child and did not know what else to do. I took care of myself for many years. Eventually around 17 I would leave the island and look for work hunting monsters. I learned how to hide my wings and would end up traveling around the Lake of Steam helping villagers just like my Father. I made a few very loyal friends that knew the truth and would always take me in if I needed. I was a folk hero in a few small towns. In Dunbridges I helped with a Giant Crocodile and met a half-orc named Eilifr, he was constantly telling tall tales and would get very aggressive if you called him on his crap, but he was a cool orc and would help me a few times through my adventures. In Thort, in southern Lake of Steam I came toe to toe with a Giant Gravel Scorpion and about met match as the creature had me in its pincers about to spike me. I tried to escape but could not, so I pulled my short sword and brought it down hard on the beast arm, it slammed of the hard exoskeleton doing nothing but angering the giant bug. I took the sword and plunged it into my free leg casting a neurotic magic rotting the pincer enough to get free. I then jumped using my wings to push me higher bringing my short sword down hard splitting the scales between its eyes spewing a greenish goo onto the ground below the defeated creature. I hunted monsters around the Lake of Steam for 10 years before the Chuul attack. One evening I was on my island doing some hand fishing off the coast when a 15-foot Chuul came rampaging out of the water toward me. Normally I would be able to take this creature easily, but I had left everything in the house, so I was forced to retreat as the creature came at me it was drawn to the fire inside and began to tear at the house, I then spent the next 2 hours keeping this beast from destroying my home. A while after dark I was helped by a tall teal Water Genasi with a whip. I did not notice her until the night lit up in a fantastic blue aura. I turned to look, the woman snapped the whip and an Orchestra of lightning tore through the night ripping the monster's arm clean from its body. As I watched this woman in amazement the creature retreated and slinked back into the depths of the lake. She looked at me with the same amazement I had and told me she did not know the whip could do that and she was only trying to distract the thing. She then introduced herself and I returned the gesture, her name was Antipathy, and she was headed to Orgoths Tower in search of some trident. I told her a cut version of my story leaving out the blood hunter part. A day or 2 later I asked if she would stay to help me fix up my house. After I told her why it was important, she agreed, I told her about my life and me being a blood hunter and we ended up becoming remarkably close and she stayed with me for another year before destiny sent us away. One day we were greeted by a messenger raven from an unknown sender, and we could not read the language, but we could read the words “Tower of Orgoth.” The letter made us both feel unsettled. We decided we needed to go, and we would come back as soon as we figured out what was going on in the Forgotten Realms. 3 days after the letter arrived, we set out on our 3-month trip to this tower Antipathy needed to go to. The trip was peaceful, and the scenery was grand. The forests and cliff faces were magnificent as we followed the Triieeor Trail almost 850 miles before we ran into problems. We camped about 40 south of a town called Riatavin, we caught a couple of very large hares, and prepared them with a couple potatoes, a carrot and some mushrooms we found along the way. We had just sat down ready to eat when the cliff face began to move, we saw 3 Rock Trolls clamber out of the cliffs in our direction. My magic would not be of much use as these Trolls were made entirely of stone and Antipathy's whip would do nothing but irritate the beast. We gathered our stuff quickly and set out as these trolls were slow, but we knew if they got a hold of us, we would be torn apart and eaten right there on the road. We made haste for 3 days straight until we made it to Riatavin, there we spent a couple night and resupplied and made it to the tower 2 days later. The tower was old and broken but still had a very powerful aura coming from inside. As we made our way into this gothic, yet heavenly tower Antipathy's whip pulsed bright blue and shot a small bolt of electricity into a symbol carved into the floor and a woman in a sliver scaled dress, white hair and a mace was summoned. This woman was at least 10 feet in height and stood gracefully in the center of this room. Antipathy knew who she was and told me later her name was Selune, the Goddess of Guidance. As we watched this goddess, she looked down at antipathy the over at me and said “I know why the Genasi is here, but what are you doing here?” Her white glow got brighter, and she hushed me before I was able to speak. She then turned back to Antipathy and answered the questions she had. As we were about to leave, Selune stopped me and told me to go to her. I did as she asked cautiously, Antipathy was almost out of the tower by now. The goddess then kneeled down and told me to speak with the Bronze Dragon and we needed to go to Neverwinter in search of a necromancer named Irog. She then whispered into my ear, “Dark times are coming, only trust yourself and the 4. Evil forces will tempt you, but you must stay in the light... the Forgotten Realms depends on it.” Selune smiled at me with worry in her eyes and faded away leaving only the dark inside the tower. I then caught up with Antipathy and told her what happened, but I left out the part of the realm depending on me not to go evil, “what the Hell did Selune even mean?” I thought to myself. A month later we reached a little village called Trailstone and booked a wagon trip, we had enough coins to get us 2000 miles. About a month in we were forced to detour north to Gem Road, half way to Gem Road we were ambushed by the vicious creatures called Intelect Devourers, tiny beast created from the brains not suitable for eating by the Illithids from the Underdark. They slaughtered the 3 passengers and the waggoneer in a vicious yet glorious manner, almost as if they were wildly painting a canvass with warm wet paint crafted from the entrails and blood of the poor villagers. Antipathy yelled at me to get on as I was watching the artists at work, I snapped out of it to see Antipathy on one of the wagons horses shed unhooked. I hopped on and she wanked the reins making the horse shoot forward, I looked back a last time to see the creatures fighting over the last brain inside a womans smashed and broken face. We rode 450 miles to Imnescar, we stayed there 3 nights then left on our way to baldurs gate (1 month on foot). We stayed a month there and I helped eradicate a couple ghouls for some extra gold before setting off again to Neverwinter. We were camped near Trollclaw Ford when our adventure took yet another wild turn. A Rakshasa casually strolled into camp as we were packing up seemingly out of nowhere. He was dressed in very bright and lavish colors, and seemed to take an interest in Antipathy's whip because he began to babble in some dialect I did not even recognize and then held out his hand holding Antipathy's whip, we both drew our weapons but that failed. As we raised our weapons the smiling tiger wiggled his fingers, an our weapons became sheathed. We then, out of ideas just stood in awe as this Rakshasa taught Antipathy how to recharge and use her electric magic inside the whip. The Rakshasa then strolled over to me and in playful, yet fierce deep voice muttered the words “soon!?” in common as clear as day. A dense fog then rolled in, and the tiger took a step back vanishing along with the fog. 4 weeks later we finally made it to Neverwinter and found the necromancer named irog. He was ironically in the cities church. He told Antipathy to talk to a woman name Runara and for me to find the Bronze Dragon. We then went to the nicest Inn in town, the Old Dirty Dwarf. We spent 3 night there just relaxing and planning, it was nice, just the 2 of us in an actual room it's been almost 6 months since we stayed in a place with actual comforts. We spent our last day in Neverwinter shopping for whatever we may need for the step in our journey. Wed been through so much already, it's hard to imagine this is just the beginning. The next morning, we boarded a rowboat to get on a merchant ship headed to Dragons Rest on a small island named Storm Wreck Isle. There were 5 other passengers but only 3 of them caught attention. There was a tall elegant Dragon born with a red staff with monkeys etched into the length of the staff, there was a small halfling, but she wielded a massive, beautiful and exotic Warhammer. It had a gorgeous gold inlay in the white handle and 2 brilliant pearl white eagle heads acting as the head of the hammer, then there was him... a human looking thing with most of his skin, muscle and meat missing entirely. As a blood hunter, this man was quite the site as there was no blood leaking anywhere, in fact I could not see any blood, but I could see his heart beating behind his rib cage and his lungs pump air. Anyway, as I was saying this man had 4 arms and one was holding a staff that looked like it had been dipped in blood as it looked wet, almost alive with a soulless black skull perched on top. I couldn't help but get the strange feeling that these 3 and Antipathy were the 4 Selune had told me about back at the tower?

Physical Description

General Physical Condition

Agile and slender

Body Features

Massive black wings

Social

Contacts & Relations

1. Selune
2. Irog
3. Tarak
4. Runara

Family Ties

Mother unknown and father has passed.

Jeffery and his father were banished from Abbor for being a Bloodhunter and stated a new life in Olodel

View Character Profile

Alignment

Chaotic Good

Age

119

Date of Birth

01 of Hammer 1400

Birthplace

Abbor

Current Residence

Faerun, Toril

Gender

Male

Eyes

Blue

Hair

Black

Skin Tone/Pigmentation

Light tan

Height

5' 10"

Weight

163