Peter Barak, Geomancer and Treasure Hunter

[Tadanori Oyama]

Peter Barak
Daring adventurer, ladies man, and personal rights advocate

Template: Focused Practitioner

High Concept:
Earth Shaking Treasure Seeker

Trouble:
Balanced on the Razor Edge of Neutrality

Aspects:
Earth Shaking Treasure Seeker
Balanced on the Razor Edge of Neutrality
"Never forget the past!"
Lure of the Unknown
Never live it down...
Things are Better Cold
Friends Under the Arch

Phase 1, Where did you come from?
Peter wasn't raised in a broken home because he made the early life choice to leave it. By the time he was in middle school his parents hated one another. Why? He doesn't know, but it wasn't fun to be around. Things spiral downward while mom drank and dad stayed out of the house as long as humanly possible, leaving Peter, his brother and his sister to fend for themselves. Social services eventually got involved and removed the children from their parent's home. In a group home Peter firmly positioned himself in the pecking order but when it came time for an actual placement he found himself disgusted by his foster parents and especially by his siblings apparent acceptance of their new life. First day of high school, Peter didn't go home on the bus, he just vanished into the New York inner city.
Aspect- "Never forget the past!"

Phase 2, What Shaped You?
Life became a long running action packed adventure of Peter as his high school years unfolded. Getting what he needed and learning the ways of the real world. He spent a lot of his time in the tunnels and passages cut under the city, using them to avoid harsh weather, social workers, and law enforcement. Down in the dark was where he met Edward Fargo, a city sewer worker and developing magician. Edward had been involved with water function in the city for decades and felt that a hands on effort was the best way to go. Recognizing the talent in the young man Edward began making the effort to bring Peter under control and prevent his magical abilities from doing him harm. As it turned out Peter's abilities where narrowly focused and vastly different than Edward's own specializations. The boy described himself "hearing the walls" and with effort could force the ground to move. By and large Peter found the White Council's "rules" easy enough to live by because they didn't forbid anything he wanted to do... with the possible exception of the Seventh Law.
Study with Edward provided Peter with previously unknown focus and direction, both mystically and in morally. Though he never completed high school, Peter did find it in his heart to forgive his brother and sister for their efforts to move past the childhood they had experienced, even if he couldn't do the same.
Aspect- Lure of the Unknown

Phase 3, What was your first adventure?
Leaving New York for the first time was exciting beyond measure for Peter. He was eighteen, certified as stable by Old Ed, and clear on his path in life: discovering what was lost within the earth's embrace. Of course, the state of New York referred to it as "grave robbing" and "illegal trafficking in historical artifacts". Peter liked "treasure hunter". It was as much about knowledge was about making a living and whatever human authority might say about it, knowledge was meant to be discovered.
Upstate New York seemed like a good place to field test everything he'd put together in the last few years. Peter ended up using everything he'd learned and making up some fresh stuff on the fly to boot when he discovered he wasn't the only one hunting for relics around the Catskill Mountains. A faerie creature wearing the human guise of Klimov Aurelius, a Georgian Archaeologist, played a week long cat and mouse game with Peter through cities and wilderness as the two traded possession of a sealed mystical tome. In the end, Klimov claimed the artifact after a show down on the outskirts of Albany by revealing his true from in the fight. The conflict did not go unnoticed by the local magicians of the White Council, likely the only reason Peter escape without serious harm. However, it also meant there where witnesses for the young Practitioner getting his ass handed to him by a unicorn.
Aspect- Never Live it Down...

Phase 4, Whose path have you crossed?
While camping in the woods and seeking old cult idols, Peter encountered a strange man looking for a missing girl. At night the two heard distant music and chanting, eventually discovering both a cult and the girl. Combining their magicial abilities the two ruined the cult's ceramony and rescused the innoccent.
Aspect- Things are Better Cold.

Phase 5, Who else's path have you crossed?
A display of relics at the St. Louis musem wasn't something to pass up. Plenty of interesting people turned up for the display, a creature of darkness among them. Thinking quickly, Peter assisted a White Council magician and a strange spear wielding warrior in the destruction of the foul creature.
Aspect- Friends Under the Arch


Skills-

Great-
Craftsmanship
Lore
Discipline

Good-
Conviction
Scholarship
Investigation

Fair-
Rapport
Weapons
Presence

Average-
Stealth
Endurance
Survival
Driving
Burglary
Alertness
Might
Deceit

Languages: English, Spanish, French, German, Latin, Akkadian, and Old Norse.

Powers (Refresh)
Base for Submerged- 10
Template Requirements:
Channeling (-2), Geomancery
Ritual (-2), Divination
Refinement (-1), Geomancery (Items)
Linguist (Scholarship) (-1)
Sex Appeal (Rapport) (-1)
Final Refresh: 3

Magic Items:
Basalt Ring: +2 Control to Geomancery
Granite Ring: +2 Offensive to Geomancery
Split Pipe Divining Necklace: +1 Offensive, +1 Control to Divination

[Tadanori Oyama]

Character Guide: IN PROGRESS

1. Does your character have any unusual quirks? What are they?
Peter considers himself a moderate in both the human world and the wizardly world. Though his powers are well spring in origin and none of his family where magically active to his awareness, he was trained and tutored by a formal wizard affiliated with the White Council and knows the Laws of Magic. He respects these because he's been told a Warden can and will cut his head off if he violates them.
Personal choice is of huge importance to Peter and he is powerfully committed to people making their own choices. Seeing someone's choices made for them or seeing someone surrender their right to choose annoys him greatly. For this reason he makes people personally accountable for their actions, outside of certain limitations such as the laws of magic. For Peter, following orders is the same as making the choices the one who gave you the orders has made. Ergo, obedience is agreement. As a result, Peter does not practice exceptional obedience.

2. Physical abnormalities? Birthmarks? Tattoos? etc.
During his youth Peter felt tattoos would be a good way to express his independence. Now he regrets his choices but tries to own them just the same. To that end he has gotten additional tattoos, altering the context of his older ones.
His left arm, just below the shoulder, was originally encircled by a band with stylisted thorns, displaying he was 'dangerous'. Following his conflict in the Catskills, Peter had the bands expanded to cover more of his arm and added tiny faeries between the thorns, to remind him who is really dangerous.
The inside of his left forearm once carried an "anarcy A" with jagged red lines but has been retouched into a more orderly pentacle surrounded by seven numbers, one through seven, to remind Peter of the magical laws at all times.
He has a blue eight pointed star between his shoulder blades, the one unchanged original tattoo he still has. It was a selection of self identity because he searched for the meaning of his name on the internet and found out 'Barak' can mean 'flash of light'.

3. Favorite things? Food? Clothes? Everyone has little likes and dislikes which say a lot about them.
Peter loves women. He praticularly likes to watch women going about their daily business without them being aware of his attention. This interest borders voyeurism in its more severe instances except that when suitably compelled Peter prefers to be in on the action directly rather than experience remotely. This is tied to Peter's Aspect of "Things are Better Cold"; he favors relationships without extreme emotion or passion. He doesn't want people to be overly happy with him and likewise he doesn't want people to be angry with him.
Old items delight Peter if they have a "history" to explore. A rock, which is undeniably old, holds little interest while a broken clay jar with half broken off markings in more explorable. And a jeweled crown from a fallen empire has history AND a modern day story. Peter is not an archaeologist: he is a treasure hunter.

4. Notate some physical descriptions.
Peter glanced up from his paperback. He held the book in his right hand, thumb wedges between the pages, close to the spin at the page base, forcing the book open while his pink depressed the left side, spreading the material wide enough to read comfortably. This allowed his left hand to remain unoccupied and he now made use of that freedom to wave his guest forward.

There is probably a world of difference between how you and I drink coffee, and the way we do says something about us. Do you pick it up with both hands, grasping the mug firmly, allowing the warmth to move into your arms before you inhale its rich aroma, or do you drink it like a junkie needing his next caffeine buzz? Try and come up with 3 or 4 physical descriptions for common acts. A cup of coffee, putting on shoes, things like that.  

5. Catch phrases? regionalisms? slang? accent? Define their voice before you start writing them.
Peter normally speaks with a calm, even voice, often speaking through a smirk. Unless he is experiencing powerful negative emotion, like anger or fear, his voice does not alter pitch or volume considerably.
"Never forget the Past" is a watch phrase for Peter. It is a warning against foolishness.
Raised in New York, Peter picked up slang and such but lost his accent during his years of language study. When aggitated he can experience language slip, throwing words and phrases from different languages into one another.

6. Pick a place for them to live. (I'll post some greater neighborhood information a little later)

[Tadanori Oyama]

Shameless Self Praise


Character Physical Description-
5' 9", 156 lbs, tanned white skin.


Character Appearance-
Peter layers his clothing, in the event weather conditions change.
A cut sleeve t-shirt forms the bottom layer, followed by a short sleeved shirt of cool colors, then a long sleeved shirt, usually a tight pullover sweater, and a windbreaker to top off the torso.
Boxer briefs under running shorts, under a pair of comfortable jeans makes for a simple lower half ensemble.


Character Possessions-