Rorgue

[Rorgue]

Player Name: Jason

Name: Rorgue [rorg]
Age: 26
Race: Human
Height: 5’7”

Physical Description:
Rorgue is a plain-looking adult human male, slightly underweight. He had medium-length, dark brown hair until it was shaved off recently, quite against his will. His eyes are also brown, though lighter, leaning towards amber in the right light. The slight tan he always carried before now has faded with a lack of sunlight, leaving his skin paler than it normally should be. Another recent change is the appearance of dark rings beneath his eyes, giving the impression that he has either slept poorly for several nights in a row or that he is rather ill – both of which are true.

Possessions:
Nothing at the moment.

Powers or Strengths:
As long as magic's not involved, Rorgue is reasonably fit and healthy. He's clever enough to survive on his own when he needs to, as long as the odds aren't stacked against him, and normal enough to blend into a crowd. If he had any real goals, he would probably have the ability to achieve most of them, and perhaps even become someone great – or at least wealthy.

Weaknesses:
Rorgue is "allergic" to magic. Whenever he comes too near a magic-wielder or even an enchanted object, he can have quite painful physical reactions, the severity of which seems to depend on the strength of the magic. Generally, the object or person affecting him will need to be in the same room (or at a similar distance, if outside), varying slightly depending on circumstances. It usually only becomes really bad if the magic-wielder or enchanted object happens to touch his skin.

At first, he will begin to shake and his body temperature will rise. Soon after, he becomes dizzy and weak, before he starts to vomit rather violently. On some occasions, his skin has become red, itchy, painful, and even swollen, though this is not a consistent symptom and might only be caused by certain types of magic.

Apart from that, he has the usual weaknesses. Not as strong as a lot of people, afraid of a few things, not always emotionally stable, no real talents, homeless, broke, currently imprisoned, etc.

History:
Rorgue was born in a town south of Marn, quite similar in size and structure, situated along the Southern Trade Route. His mother's family owned a farm there, while his father was a travelling merchant. Though his father stayed around after the unplanned birth of his child, it was only three years before the young woman who had become a mother too early decided she would go with her merchant boyfriend to travel the trade routes of Eyropa. After all, she had never ventured far from her family's home before, and the idea was exciting.

So from then on, Rorgue was raised by grandparents, two uncles and an aunt, alongside his five cousins. Even without his parents around, it was a normal childhood. He became a normal young man, unsure of the direction he wished to take in life. He was forced to help with all the work, kept fit and active, picking up most general skills you'd expect a farmer to have. Not that he was all that great at it, but since he wouldn't inherit the farm, it didn't really matter.

His parents had, over the years, sent letters, a surprising number of which actually made it all the way to Rorgue, even from the city D'ketja hud Lakinge, where his parents had eventually settled. It wasn't until he was 16 that they finally decided to ask Rorgue to go and live with them and their two daughters, though expecting him to travel all the way there on his own. His grandfather forbade him from doing so until he was at least nineteen, for his own safety and because they still needed that extra working hand until some of Rorgue's younger cousins were old enough to help out.

It was not until 21, in the end, that Rorgue left his uncle's farm, having been delayed by the death of his grandfather and grandmother, both passing away within four months of each other. Even if they didn't need him to stay, he couldn't bring himself to just leave the family in their grief when there were things he could do. And even when he left, Rorgue knew he probably wouldn't end up in Lakinge with his parents.

As he travelled into the midst of Eyropa, Rorgue found himself fascinated for the ever-increasing abundance of magic, despite how he had been so often warned against it by his puradyne grandparents. He stayed in various Eyropan towns and cities, simply basking in the culture and finding what work was available, just enough to make a living, usually trading physical labour for a place to stay while what money he made was spent on food.

After a few years of that nonsense, he somehow found himself getting involved with a magic-oriented "gang" of sorts, deciding that it might be "fun" or "interesting" to be involved with criminals whose actions went against most of the things his family believed in religiously. Instead, he eventually found himself being used as demon bait for experiments performed by associates of the aforementioned group of criminals.

They had seen how astral-beings were attracted to living creatures which could be used as vessels in this realm... or sometimes they just fed off them. Either way, naive kids like Rorgue were perfect tools in the study and capture of pure-magic creatures.

Unfortunately, when they did try to open up a little bit of the astral plane through Rorgue, something went wrong. His skin started to break open, weeping blood and pus, while his eyes rolled back in his head and his body started to shake violently. It certainly wasn't normal, so those performing the magical part of the experiment had to stop and re-evaluate the situation.

For weeks he remained ill, unable to keep down a meal or do anything much but groan and attempt sleep, his symptoms only worsening when a healer tried to assist him. Not that they cared much for his life so much as his potential usefulness. It wasn't every day you found yourself someone willing to volunteer themselves to you. Someone without friends or family connections in the area, who could eventually "disappear" without anyone even knowing he was there at all.

Regardless of what use he could have been to them, when word somehow managed to get out that there were criminals hiding in one particular building in town, those staying there had to leave immediately – leaving Rorgue behind, too much trouble to drag along with them. He was found by the local guardsmen who came two days later to investigate the rumour they had heard.

Fortunately for Rorgue, the man who decided to let him stay in his home to recover had absolutely no magical ability, nor did his wife.

After another couple of days, Rorgue was recovering from his illness quite well, though he still had the wounds from when he had touched the astral plane. The man questioned him, Rorgue telling him most of the story, save for how his part in all this was voluntary. He didn't need to know that, and considering how the young man had been left there to die or be caught by guards, it was easy to believe that he had simply been kidnapped. And so, it was not difficult to convince the man to let Rorgue leave once he was able, still slightly itchy and nauseated, but healthy enough to travel alone.

It did not take long at all for the still-slightly-injured young man to encounter problems leaving the area. This area of Eyropa was clearly filled with magic-users and their wares, which was much of the reason Rorgue had been attracted to it in the first place. He ventured near to a healer's store, but could not even muster the strength to open the door so close to such abundance of magic. A stranger's hand on his arm left a red, swelling mark, and he pleaded for whoever it was to leave him alone.

He could barely see at that point, though. His eyes were blurry, and all he could do was kneel on the ground and try to keep from vomiting on his own clothes. He heard distant voices, felt a hand on his shoulder. It burned but he could not bring himself to move it, and after moment that seemed never-ending, he eventually lost consciousness.

Rorgue awoke to find his body being rocked about roughly; a crunching, shuffling noise loud in his ears making him think his head might split in two. He groaned, but kept lying still for long moment, breathing slowly and willing the pain away. But the pain did not abate, even slightly, as his senses began to return to him. It took a while for him to realize that he was moving.

Before he had a chance to investigate this realization, a voice spoke over him, the words carried away by the deafening roar from beneath his head. He stayed silent, however, still not quite in any state of clear thought. The voice drifted over him again. “Hey… I know you’re awake, boy.”

Reluctantly, Rorgue began the onerous task of opening his eyes despite the pain it caused him. Eventually he was able to look around, first spying the owner of the voice, then glancing around to see that he was in the back of a wagon of some sort, half-filled with hay. He could hear the horses pulling it along, and the sound of wheels over stones was unmistakable now.

When he returned his gaze to his yet unnamed companion, the man was grinning at him. He looked to be about 40, and not a rich man by the way he was dressed, the state of his teeth... and the fact that he was riding in a hay cart. "The name's N'riker, but y'can call me Rike. 'M curious though... Who the fuck are you? And why're we bein' paid to drag y'outta 'Ropa?"

After awkward introductions, the next few hours were spent explaining and discussing the odd situation Rorgue was in. Rike told him that he and his son had been visiting Rike's family in the west of Eyropa, but halfway home, stopping just outside of the town Rorgue had been staying in (until he passed out in the street), they had been asked to take an unconscious kid out of the city.

"Somethin' about magic," Rike explained, rather vaguely, before going on to say that the person who paid them to take him was a healer's apprentice. "We'd thought to throw y'off soon as we left town, but lucky for you, boy, we ain't bad people. They want y'away from magic, the kid said. Y'wanna tell me why?"

Of course, Rorgue had no idea, though he wondered if someone might've found out he had been working with criminals. Maybe the thieves had been caught; he doubted the power-hungry sorcerers were. Maybe someone had been able to identify Rorgue from a thief's description of him, and now they had to get him out of town before he got caught as well.

That family who had looked after him must have organized it, Rorgue decided. No one else would. I didn't know anyone else. And the reason they didn't want him near magic, he assumed, was because they were concerned that he might be as power-hungry as those magicians he'd been sold to for experimentation. Of course, he didn't mention any of this to Rike, in case the man had a sudden change of heart.

Rike also told him that he had been unconscious for nearly two days, and he and his son, Jarrin, had thought he might not wake up at all. After his return to reality, they traveled another three or four days, until they reached Rike's farm, where he and his family bred horses which they supposedly sold in nearby towns. The farther they had traveled, the fewer towns they had passed through, and it was clear that they were now well into the Sooqui Plain.

The last town they passed, before heading off the main road and onto the rough track which led to the farm, was supposedly called Marn. It was smaller than Rorgue had imagined, but certainly made him uncomfortable as they had passed through. Then again, so did most of the towns they passed, since the mysterious accident and the weird week that followed it.

After two months spent with Rike's family, helping out with the horses and other chores, partially out of gratitude for the lift and being given a place to stay, but mostly due to having no idea where he even wanted to go anymore, Rorgue was given the task of taking a pair of geldings into Marn. He was to lead them in, pass them onto Rike's niece's husband, and then buy the supplies they needed from town. Jarrin would be helping him take the horses in, but wouldn't be returning for a week or two, leaving Rorgue to return to the farm alone.

Things did go wrong, however, when they reached Marn. As they entered the city, still mounted, they noticed a small group of armed men heading down the street in their general direction. "Hey," Jarrin whispered, leaning towards Rorgue as he did so. "See that one with the red gloves? That's a battlemage. Don't see those around much. Best keep our heads down when they go past."

After he paused, he added, "Didn't the old man say something about you not allowed near magic?" To that, Rorgue just shrugged. He hadn't a clue what Rike had meant by it - and neither did Rike, it had seemed. Besides, the temperature had suddenly dropped and it was making Rorgue shiver visibly. He felt light-headed too, worse as they neared the group of guards who seemed to be having quite a serious discussion amongst themselves, though Rorgue was beginning to have trouble focusing on anything at that moment.

"Rorgue, you alright?" came Jarrin's voice through the haze, which briefly drew the attention of the guards they were passing. Only the battlemage, a dark-haired woman, didn't look away, glaring at the two of them as they passed. Rorgue barely noticed, struggling to stay upright in his saddle. Suddenly, a sharp pain like a burning knife had been shoved into his skull, so painful he didn't even realize he had screamed, or that he'd fallen from the horse onto the hard, paved street floor.

Fortunately - or perhaps unfortunately, depending of your point of view - a guardsman with quick reflexes managed to keep Rorgue's head from hitting the ground too hard. He let go as soon as the young man leaned away to vomit over the floor, the pain having stopped long enough for him to have the sense to keep from covering himself in it.

As soon as he was done with that, he collapsed on the ground, still awake but far too ill to do anything except lie there. Until the pain ripped through his head again, causing him to scream and curl up, his hands pressing into his skull. Rorgue felt himself lose and regain consciousness several times before the pain finally subsided, despite the onslaught lasting only minutes. There were voices, loud enough to make his head throb, though he couldn't make out what was being said.

Slowly, Rorgue's senses returned to normal. He was swaying, moving, as someone pulled him to feet, and he opened his eyes to the painful light. There were only a couple of guardsmen with him now, and no sign of Jarrin or the supposed battlemage. He still didn't feel quite himself, but there was no pain, no chill, and his head was clearing. The walk was long and slow, his leg sore from his earlier fall, but eventually they made it to a building that appeared to be the guard's headquarters.

Inside the building, Rorgue was led to a plain room containing only a table and two chairs, one of each side. He was left in one of these seats when the guards with him left the room. Twelve minutes, what felt like an hour to the light-headed and aching Rorgue, before someone else walked in. It was too much of an effort to lift his head from the table and glance up at the man, but he answered the questions asked as well as he could... which really wasn't very well at all.

When asked if he was associated with magicians, he explained his misfortune in being "kidnapped" by criminals in Eyropa for their "twisted, magical experiments", but that they had left him to die of some mysterious illness when their hideout was raided. He explained that passing travelers had given him a lift out of the area, when he was still too ill to travel alone, and that they had been told to keep Rorgue away from magic.

Eventually, the man stood and left, leaving Rorgue in peaceful silence for all of two minutes, before he was being lifted and dragged out of the room again. Then out of the building, around a couple of corners, and finally stopping outside of a... well, Rorgue wasn't really sure what it was. It certainly did not fit in here, in a city like Marn. The architecture was incredible, the white stone giving the whole structure a supernatural aura of power and mystery.

But they did not stop to admire the oddity, greeted by a small group of people at the door. Two of these people strode past Rorgue and the guards, heading off in the direction of the guardhouse. A command was issued, and most of the guards that had escorted Rorgue went the same way, leaving only one holding him by the shoulder, another with his hand on the hilt of his sword.

Inside the building, it was much cooler, for which Rorgue was thankful. The air also seemed... different, somehow. Purer, perhaps? He felt far more comfortable, in any case, as they led him through the building. The inside was twice as impressive as the outside, Rorgue decided, wondering how they kept this place a secret. There was certainly no way a city like Marn could have a place built this well without it being a creation of powerful magic.

He stared, gaped, gasped, as he was led down a corridor that was lined by what looked like a series of prison cells... only not. They stopped, opened a door to an empty cell, and pushed him inside. The door was closed, locked, and he was left there alone, waiting, trying to understand what was happening to him. Was he being imprisoned for being ill? Or was this some kind of hospital? A quarantine?

There was a bed here, at least, and Rorgue found it easy to fall asleep after the trouble he had gone through that morning.

When they eventually woke him, they dragged him to another room and fitted him with some sort of thin, metal collar. The people who performed the task were all masked but apparently male. This confused Rorgue, and he screamed and flailed and otherwise expressed his discomfort. This was strange. There was something wrong with this place, he decided. No, there is definitely something wrong with Marn.

Then he screamed, and was surprised when no noise escaped him. The collar had sent a burning shock through him, leaving his skin itching and his muscles twitching slightly. He clawed at it, whimpered as another bolt ripped through the thing, sending him to his knees. His mind was blank, his head throbbing, and his stomach threatening to make an escape through his mouth, if only his teeth weren't clenched so tight they might break.

Unfortunately, this was only the beginning. They began to take Rorgue out of the hall at nights, as they searched for illegal magic, using his reaction to its presence to decide whether people were to be arrested or have items confiscated. If he disobeyed, the collar would have him writhing on the ground in pain. He had no idea how it worked. It wasn't attached to anything, so he assumed it had to be magical in nature.

During the day, they had decided they would experiment on him, testing the reactions to various forms of magic and even non-magical forms of torture, watching him slowly losing his mind to the pain and confusion, using him as a tool in their insane hunt, their crazed desire to rid the world of all magic... yet using magic themselves, in some of the most inhumane ways Rorgue could imagine.

[Saruna]

Approved.