There’s no mayhem like unrequited-love mayhem.
The first chapter of the story of Scott “Dorado” Schaffer began in 2002, when Scott graduated from high school and headed (a bit reluctantly) to college. Scott did not have high opinions of education in any form, after being ostracized by his peers and subtly ridiculed by his teachers. He was smart, but unconventional, and extremely out of shape, which made him a prime target for most of the high school groups. He had expected college to be more of the same kind of crap that came with high school, only in Greek.
Luckily for him, he wound up taking some classes by three very creative — if a little crazy — instructors. It was in those classes where he started to find purpose… and in two of the three, he sat by a very funny young woman; Annie Dale. Annie wasn’t a genius, but she had more common sense than a lot of the other women running around campus. Scott wasn’t exactly smitten, but he certainly liked talking over ideas and things with her. A lot of his alternative science ideas were over her head, though.
As time went on, Scott’s self-esteem, newly reconstructed, began taking a pounding again. His grades were slipping, and the last class film project collapsed after a technical problem with the camera he was running. Feeling inadequate, he started looking for a way to redeem himself somehow, worried that he might lose Annie’s friendship. He started working out regularly, which didn’t help his grades but made him feel better about himself.
He was about to ask her out on a date one day while the Creative Writing Instructor was getting his ninth cup of coffee, when she asked him for his advice. This was not unusual, since Scott was a pretty impartial advisor. The problem was with her boyfriend, Thomas Kenzington. Up until then, Scott hadn’t known at all about it. He was able to provide some reasonably plausible advice, then went back to his dorm room and brooded a little bit. He eventually rationalized away any irritation he felt.
For about a year, Scott was basically Annie’s “relationship counselor”, or at least that’s how he felt. Little by little, he would start to get angry at her and Thomas, and this could not be rationalized away… only repressed. He fixated on Annie a lot, refusing to let himself say even a single word against her unless it was part of a joke. Any anger left over at the end of the day, he burned away in vigorous exercise. His mind bent out of shape a little bit every passing day. Sometimes he wanted to just tell her off, but he was always stymied by one problem: She hadn’t done anything wrong. To blow up at her for no reason would surely end their friendship, which was all he had left as his classwork and family life deteriorated. The exercises became more and more aggressive and frenetic.
Nobody is sure what the straw was that broke the camel’s back, but something caused Scott to snap just before Winter Break 2004. He was in the weight room of the athletic center, and suddenly he started laughing and he couldn’t stop. He made it back to his dorm room just before the laughter turned to tears. The next morning, though, he seemed okay, even though he had this suspicious gleam in his eye.
The holidays spent with his family were just barely passable, as opposed to their being intolerable like the last five or six years. When he returned for the spring semester, he seemed a lot more self-confident.
Scott had, simply put, stumbled onto Epideromancy through exercise. The entire point of exercising was to break down the body and have it rebuild itself stronger than it was before. In and of itself, that wouldn’t have done it, but Scott was able to tie together stuff he’d read about regarding alchemy, nuclear transmutation, and some of his high school chemistry. For him, it was not enough to make the body stronger, but to remove the toxins and chemicals that made it weaker or less efficient. With enough energy, he could burn off the impurities and become more than human.
And as a more-than-human being, he might seem more attractive to Annie than Thomas did.
Things did not go so smoothly, however. At the end of the year, after the graduation festivities, Annie and Thomas eloped, Annie stopping only long enough to send Scott an e-mail telling him about it. Scott… didn’t take it well.
Ever since that day, Scott has been chasing after Annie, out of his mind and feeling very vengeful. He’s not thinking clearly, so he can’t follow very subtle clues, and his magick takes a toll on his body, so he has to stop and rest a lot. He’s altered his appearance to something more flamboyant, including multicolored hair (black with a pronounced red stripe on the right side) and differently colored eyes (left is blue, right is green), and he calls himself Dorado, after the fish known for its impressive colors. (Also known as Dolphinfish or mahi-mahi, it makes for good eating.)
He’s gained the sobriquet “the Relentless” after a few run-ins with the Occult Underground where he was simply too tough (or stupid) to back down. The fact that he goes for long periods without sleep, sustained by the spell Relentless Will might have something to do with it as well.
Name: Scott Schaffer / Dorado the Relentless
Personality: Scorpio
Obsession: (Epideromancy) The Purification and Perfection of the body.
Wound Points: 88
Rage Passion: Dorado does not like practical jokes and pranks, even if they are not directed at him.
Fear Passion: (Self) That his body will let him down even after all the work he’s put in it.
Noble Passion: True Love. Even as crazy as he is, he can’t bring himself to kill anyone who has done something, no matter how short-sighted or destructive, to help a spouse or friend. He might rough them up a bit, but he’ll let them live.
Body 75 (Ripped)
Weight Lifting 40%, Grapple 50%, Dashing Good Looks 30%
Speed 70 (Fleet of Foot)
Dodge 40%, Drive 20%, Initiative 40%, Hold Video Camera Steady 35%, Handguns 30%
Mind 60 (Lateral Thinker)
General Education 30%, Herbal Medicine 35%, Camera Operation 25%, Notice 20%
Soul 60 (Scarily Intense)
Charm 25%, Lie 25%, Magick: Epideromancy 45%
-Madness Meters-
Violence: 5H/1F
Unnatural: 5H/3F
Helplessness: 2H/2F
Isolation: 2H/5F
Self: 3H/3F
Mental Aberration: Stalker-Level Obsession with Annie Dale
Possessions: A cool-looking trenchcoat, sunglasses, a notebook with all the information regarding the trail that Annie Dale and Thomas Kenzington left.
Notes: Dorado has all the standard Epideromancy spells, but his charging structure is different. The taboo remains the same.
-Minor Charges are gained by doing heavy exercise for an hour. This can be anything from weightlifting to running to hitting a punching bag. These exercises are so strenuous they qualify as Wound Point damage, to the tune of three WP per hour. This damage can be healed only by time or medicine, not Dorado’s own magick.
-Significant Charges are gained by removing weak elements from the body. In a ritual context, Dorado must either induce vomiting in a symbolic attempt to purify himself. A less… disgusting way to generate a significant charge is to spend an hour in a very hot environment like a sauna or boiler room, in a symbolic attempt to “sweat out” — or even better, “burn out” — the impurities. Each significant charge is gained through damage, either to the esophogus or the whole body through heat exposure – roll two dice and take the sum as damage. (Naturally, this damage cannot be healed by Dorado’s own magick.) The only limit on generating significant charges is Dorado’s tolerance for injury, just as with normal Epideromancy. He also can’t gain charges from vomiting or heat exposure he didn’t initiate, so no charging on motion sickness or getting stranded in the desert.
-Major Charges are gained as per normal Epideromancy. This is moot, though, as Dorado doesn’t know there’s any such thing as a major magickal charge… yet.
Dorado can usually be found with three to five minor charges OR a significant charge.
Goal: Dorado is not entirely sure if he’s going to slit Annie’s throat or just tell her he loves her and disappear, but he’s not open to changing his goal of finding her. It would take a critical success on a Persuasion type of skill, mind-altering spells/avatar channels, or a House of Renunciation to change his mind. At least, in his present, insane condition. If someone could get him back to four failed notches in Isolation, he might be more willing to re-examine his priorities. Or maybe not.