| DEMOGRAPHICS

Birthday: 16 Sondu 733 (28 Years)
Race: Gifted Human
Gender: Male
Origin: Wild Lands (Foundling)
Residence: Hobo-topia
Sexuality: Hetero
Marital Status: Divorced

| BLOODLINE

Father: Serbo Greentusk (Half-Orc, adopted)
Mother: Gertrude "Gert Rude" Greentusk (Orc, step-mother)
Sisters: Unknown
Brothers: Unknown
Children: Unknown
Other: Donnovan Gnarlson (Judicar Palaven, Mentor), Morticia Vangerdhast (High Society Madam, Information Broker, Independent Spy-Master, Ex-Wife)

| APPEARANCE

Height: 6'1"
Weight: 230lbs
Eyes: Brown
Hair: Blond
Scars: Diamond-shaped puncture scar on his back above his liver, otherwise surprisingly devoid of scars, swordsman calluses.
Medical: Healthy
Tattoos: None
Attire: Well worn partial-plate armor over travel leathers.

| INVENTORY

|| magic

Arcane Leech
- Kerr has no active magical talent of his own. Instead, he possesses a passive ability that allows him to absorb the talent of invidividuals around him. While in the presence of a magically talented individual Kerr's own potential transforms to match the talent of the other person, becoming a copy of their magical talent. This allows him to use that magical talent for a time. The longer he spends around that person the more of their ability he copies, allowing him to store up usage of that ability. If he uses only the most basic application of the power it is often minute for minute or some other equivalency (i.e. a minute of usage per minute of proximity to source). If used in the presence of the source the usage does not count against the amount stored up but it prevents further charging until usage ends. If he has an ability charged he can choose whether or not to begin charging another.
- While Kerr doesn't suffer from usage weaknessess quite the same as the person of origin for a given talent he faces a different limiting factor. If he uses a given power at a much higher frequiency (for on or off abilities) or at a higher intensity (for powers with levels of usage) it causes his stored charge in direct relation. For example, if he has ten minutes of usage of an ability that can usually only be used two times per minute and he uses it twenty times in the first minute he will have exhausted his entire charge of the ability until he can spend more time in the presence of the subject he gained the talent from. Most importantly, however, Kerr can only store one ability at a time. If he chooses to begin charging another he loses all charge with the previous ability he was around if he had any. If Kerr has no ability charged he will immediately begin charging the next one he encounters whether he knows it or not. Kerr only becomes immune to a given ability if the source is also immune to it. Does not work on truly dead sources.

Instinctive Mastery
- When encountering a new ability Kerr instinctually gains a basic understanding of the ability. Limitations, ranges, how to activate it, required items (simple), and effects. This allows him to use new talents as if he has basic practice with the ability. It also informs him of when he begins charging a new ability such as when he has none stored and encounters a new magical talent source. It also gives him an instinctive knowledge of how much usage he has stored currently.
- This ability will not teach him hedge magic, even if he is in the presence of a hedge mage. Nor will it tell him the source of a given ability, such as if he starts picking one up randomly in a crowd. He would have to use deductive reasoning or the process of elimination to figure out who the source is.

|| skills

Personal Combat, Investigations/Forensics (Medieval), Law Knowledge, Bushcraft, Herbalism, Poison Craft, Animal Handling, Stealth, Small Group Tactics, Acting, Merchant Craft, Nobility Knowledge.

|| animals

Usually has a horse.

|| weapons

Matched dueling blade, war knife, and daggers. Is capable of wielding a wide variety of war weapons and thus occasionally has additional examples in his possession.

|| supplies

A variety of camping/survival equipment, trail rations, a torture tool kit, a healing kit, and three sets of shackles for making friends.

| PERSONALITY

Boundlessly upbeat and optimistic when at play.  Friendly, charming, and generally the type of man to draw in as many people as possible when he celebrates.  Perpetually broke due to this and his general generosity with coin, as if he has a natural aversion to saving for tomorrow.  His drinking is largely performative but he is a hopeless womanizer whenever the opportunity arises and travels as often to avoid an angry paramour, her husband, or her father as he does for work.  Prone to gambling (skill games) to subsidize his more honest income.  Can almost always be found in a bar, tavern, gambling hall, inn, or barn loft if not actively engaged in his work.

| HISTORY

Discovered as a toddler foundling along the southern edge of the heavily forested Wild Lands huddled against the base of a lightning struck, still smoking burned out tree by a mercenary unit known as the Long-Thorn Irregulars that had been tracking a raiding party of feral Orcs.  The trail had led them straight to the tree, footprints had milled about, and then continued North but the child remained.  With the orcs in the forest again and the job technically done one of the members of the crew, a Half-Orc called Serbo Greentusk who had been a foundling himself, elected to take the child with him despite the side-eyeing of his peers.  Serbo wasn't very bright, was aware of the fact, and so was delighted when his son turned out to be quite clever.  His disposable income, meager though it was, turned from ale with his fellow mercenaries to paying for tutors for "Boy".  The rest of the crew got used to the kid, as he turned out to be very eager to help and be helpful by cleaning gear, repairing broken things in the field, throat-cutting after battles, fetching water, digging latrines, etc.  Rough men and women, they took to calling him Cur, which Serbo blithely adopted and promptly misspelled to Kerr.  The much better educated Kerr repronounced it to anyone who would listen as "Car" and never made any noise about the whole matter until...

Kerr Blackwood (so named because of the burned tree) became a full member of the mercenary company at thirteen years of age, having grown fast and strong under the work given him by his mercenary family.  He swiftly gained the respect of his former betters, now peers, by being quick and intelligent due to the education purchased by his father.  He began negotiating their contracts at sixteen, being the best with numbers and having a knack for making sure they turned a profit even in the worst places by diversifying their payment scheme and knowing where they could turn goods into the most gold (incidentally allowing far less wealthy places be able to hire their services at the same time).  The rest of the unit adopted his preferred name pronunciation at eighteen, finding that he had figured out how to make anyone in the company miserable if they didn't comply.  Nothing worse than finding you couldn't go drinking because you needed to repair your armor or pay a fine at the city gates, right?  Why was Kerr smiling... oh.  At the age of nineteen, after leaving a nobleman's home in the wee hours of the morning via a rear window on the third floor and safely navigating his way to the ground in total darkness and utter silence, Kerr was approached by a stranger.

The stranger was a man offering him the chance to take his life beyond the routine of a young mercenary, exciting as it was.  A chance to take on bigger challenges, a greater education, learn better skills while perfecting the ones he'd already gained.  All taught by the most dangerous men and women alive.  To live a double life, to guide his own hand, and to make the world a better place thereby.  Kerr had questions, of course.  Due to his hybrid nature, Serbo had become prone to illness after excursions into the field and Kerr had been planning to have the man retire on his support.  As was his habit, he negotiated the terms of his service, and by the time the sun was clear of the horizon Kerr had committed to life as a Judicar.  He found his crew looking for him at the local constabulary, treated them to a fine meal out of the coin he'd secured at his host's home the night before, and bid them farewell.  He allowed them to presume he'd found a fine rich widow to run off with and happily saw him off since their bellies were full.  He stopped by his father's tent and told him about a house he'd secured in Oborne, with a forge, where his father could stay out of the field and sleep in the warm no matter how cold it got outside.  He swore he'd send his father money regularly and the Half-Orc could forge and repair weapons for Sarkin's Rest and adventurers bound into the forest to supplement it if he wanted.  It took convincing but as his father had never grown any brighter it was an easy enough task.

Kerr's last task before disappearing for four years was escorting his father to Oborne, to the sturdy and warm home the stranger had arranged for the Half-Orc, and getting him settled in.  He stayed three days, making all the arrangements for the coal and wood needed for the forge to be regularly delivered.  He arranged for a supply of good quality metal to be sourced on demand, both lead and iron.  And then he bid his father farewell, promising to return in a few years when he'd completed some vague journey.  He'd have promised to write, but Serbo had never learned to read.  Kerr was met at the edge of town by the stranger and they'd disappeared into the wilds side by side.  Four and a half years later, Kerr returned to his father's home to find the Half-Orc looking stronger and forging nails for a new building that was to go up in the slowly expanding town.  Got crushed into a hug, treated to a terrible but plentiful meal (Serbo wasn't much of a cook), and introduced to his step-mother Gertrude a former Orc warrior with a bad leg from injury.  She wasn't much of a cook either.  But Kerr was overjoyed to have someone a little sharper handling the business end of Serbo's business and his open acceptance of her won over Gertrude too.  And just like that, Kerr had a mother who had just been busy for the first twenty-four years of his life.  He gave them gold, spinning a fine yarn about his journeys as a lone mercenary and part-time merchant, getting paid to join merchant caravans and turning a profit with the goods he brought along for the trip, and when it was all over he bid them farewell once again as he set off to do his real work, bringing light to the shadows.