Don't know what happened, but DS was down last night just as I tried to post Coatl. Perhaps the board doesn't want me to play... to hell with that, I say!
Esteban Moreno, "In Coatl" (Nahuatl: The Snake)
BACKGROUND
[ Spoiler ]
As one of the so-called Yucatan "rebels" it really pissed Esteban off when Pobre accepted Aztlan's olive branch and became governor of the peninsula. People, people with families and dreams, fought and bled and died for the Yucatan's freedom. And this fucking wyrm brushed all that aside and took credit. The dragon gets to rule the land, and gets a pawn in some goddamn game in which the scaleys hold all the pieces. And what do the people get? Fuckin' nothing. Their land changes hands from some metaphorical snake to a literal one. That's all.
It keeps him up at night.
Esteban Moreno was born as the resentment and anger of the Yucatan first boiled over into rebellion and battle. He saw cousins and uncles chewed up and killed by the Aztlan war machine. He saw crops planted to feed families and huts for shelter set aflame to roust rebels. By his ninth birthday he knew how to fire an assault rifle; by his twelfth he had lost count of how many men he had personally killed.
But all things end, good and bad; and just as the troll entered his teen years the fighting came to a stop. The loss of so many—Esteban’s own village had been razed, his parents and sisters dying in smoke and flame while he’d been fighting miles away—made the rebellion’s slight victory bittersweet. Even worse, a dragon was in charge, rather than the people; no matter how often Pobre called himself a “Mexican,” it couldn’t change the fact that the serpent had slept all through Mexico’s existence. Many dragons had been involved for the fight for the peninsula; to Esteban, they were interested only in domain, rather than changing anything.
With very few family members still living, and a teenager’s typical anger against the world, Esteban joined up with a crew of smugglers. It was glamorous; he saw more of the world than he’d ever thought possible (and all without leaving Central America). By the time he was 17 he’d served on several different crews, but had finally found his permanent place with one: the Yanqui Drowners, weapons smugglers who stuck to the rivers and inlets of the Pacific coastline when they weren’t raiding AZT camps for their product.
He was proud to be with the Drowners; they lived by their own rules and bent knee to no country or corporation. They were glad to have a soldier with them: he knew how to fight, he knew the jungles. Best of all, they gave him a chance to use his mind. Never very smart, Esteban was nevertheless a naturally intuitive mechanic, and the Drowners were not afraid to take advantage of that. He began to learn how the machines and weapons worked, and realized he enjoyed being more than just dumb muscle.
Work with the Yanqui Drowners was lucrative but dangerous. Esteban put his share into enhancements, knowing he needed every slight edge. New eyes, new ears; he got a voice modder to speak in code during ops—birdcall was great for messaging. He lost his right arm in an ambush in Panama; it wasn’t long before he came to like the new one even more.
With their attacks on, and theft of, Aztechnology property, the Yanqui Drowners were making a name for themselves. Esteban thought it was great, a sign of their rising importance. But some of the Drowners were not fond of being targets, and slowly a plea deal of sorts was arranged between the ring’s leadership and the corp.
It happened so fast that in Esteban’s mind it’s still a blur. The corpsec team burst in while he was sleeping in his Panama City flat and overtook him easily. There was a kangaroo court, and the Azzies went all out—they claimed Esteban was well-known for his war crimes during the Yucatan rebellion. They accused him of being the one that razed his village—of killing his family, of burning down what little home he had had growing up. They turned it into a circus, basking in the good PR of putting away a dangerous terrorist. And then he disappeared.
While he was imprisoned in the hellhole AZT controls on the Narau Protectorate, he heard rumors. Word came down from guards sometimes, about how he’d been set up, about how his execution had been faked for the bloodthirsty media so he could be left here to rot forever. They showed him videos, made him listen to taped conversations, proving that the Yanqui Drowners had set him up to cut the noose that was tightening around their own necks. The guards told him these things to try and break his will; but instead he hid it all inside and vowed he would have his revenge.
They made him fight in the pits to kill him, but it only made him stronger. They spread whispers to the other inmates about the Coatl, the Snake, who killed his own family; but any would-be assassin hopped-up on these lies soon found themselves dead at the troll’s hands. Esteban kept to himself and the others soon learned—stay out of his way if you know what’s good for you.
They were made to work on Narau, groups made to dive to mineral mines while armed guards kept watch. Esteban was with one of these boats when a riot began at the prison. He doesn’t know what caused it, but it was enough of a distraction that he and the others killed their guards and made off with the boat. They worked their way across Micronesia, thieving and pirating and murdering their way to Australia, away from Narau. Esteban left them in Brisbane, getting passage across the sea with a pirate crew.
From Australia to Metropole; from Metropole to Caracas. He’s been free less than a year, taking what odd jobs he can, fighting for money when he needs to. He follows rumors and ghosts. He’s heard that the Yanqui Drowners split up as an operation, but he might learn more in Venezuela. And he intends to. There’s blood on his hands and there’ll be a whole lot more before he’s through. They tried to wipe him from the Earth; he won’t rest until he does the same to them.
SHEET
[ Spoiler ]
Esteban Moreno, In Coatl -- Troll -- 40 BP
Starting Nuyen: 240
(whoo! deep pockets!)
(Nuyen Roll: 2d6 → [1,5] = (6)) (plus 6 from Gear conversion)
ATTRIBUTES - 180 BP
[ Spoiler ]
Body - 9
Agility - 3
Reaction - 4
Strength - 8
Charisma - 1
Intuition - 2
Logic - 2
Willpower - 4
Edge - 1
Init - 6 (1 Init Pass)
Essence - 2.14
QUALITIES - +7 BP (extra 15 pts for Neg qualities, -8 for MA Maneuvers)
[ Spoiler ]
POSITIVE
Guts - 5
Martial Arts - 10
--Sangre & Acero: +1 die to Exotic Melee Weapon tests; +1 DV to attacks with Blades
--Maneuvers: Blind Fighting, Break Weapon, Finishing Move, Set Up (8 BP)
Tough As Nails L 1 - 10
Will To Live - 10
NEGATIVE
Enemy - Yanqui Drowners (C:4(+3)/I:3) - 10 BP (15)
High Maintenance Implant -Cyberspurs - 5
Prejudiced - Aztlaners, Outspoken - 10 (15)
SINner (Criminal) - 10
SKILLS - 154 BP
[ Spoiler ]
Armorer 3
Automatics 4
Blades 4
Cybertechnology 1
Dodge 4
Exotic Melee Weapon 3
Heavy Weapons 2
Intimidation 2
Nautical Mechanic 2
Outdoors Group 2
Perception 3
Pilot Ground Craft 1
Unarmed 4 (Spec: Sangre & Acero)
KNOWLEDGE SKILLS - 12 pts free, 6 BP
[ Spoiler ]
"Aztlaner" Spanish - N
Guns - 2
Guerilla Warfare - 2
Jungle Flora - 3
Martial Arts - 3
Prison Tattoos - 3
Smuggling Routes - 2
CONTACTS - 8 BP
[ Spoiler ]
Martin, former rebel turned Ghost Cartel Soldier: C3/L1. "Don't call me, man. I don't need Aztech hit squads coming after me because I might know where you are."
David "Skimmer", Smuggler: C3/L1. "Leave me out of this. I do not want to get involved. You're a war criminal, you're poison."
GEAR - 94015
, 19 BP, remainder converted into starting nuyen
[ Spoiler ]
Base Gear (7375
)
Squatter Lifestyle, 3 mths prepaid (1500)
Lined Coat (700)
Half Body FFBA (900)
Fake SIN R3 (3000)
Respirator R2 (200)
Cybertechnology Kit (500)
MetaLink comm w/ Vector Xim OS (300)
-AR Gloves (250)
Kamikaze, 6 doses (600)
Snuff, 5 doses (25)
Cyberware (85940
)
Voice Modulator (7500) (.2 E)
Cybereyes R2 (750) (.3 E)
--Flare Comp, Low-Light, Thermo, Smartlink (3750)
Cyberears R1 (500) (.2 E)
--Augmented Hearing R1, Damper, Spatial Recognizer (3000)
Dermal Sheath R1 (10000) (.6 E)
Kevlar Bone Lacing (10000) (1 E)
Obvious Cyberarm, Customized (Body 5, Str 7, +2 Capacity) (26000) (1 E)
--Agility +2, Body +2, Strength +3 (1650)
--Armor R1 (300)
--Two Retractable Spurs, one facing forward, one facing behind (3600)
--Olfactory Booster R3 (3000)
Hand Razors w/ Cybergland, Secondhand (800) (.36E)
--Cybergland has 3 dose capacity
--Loaded with Dopadrine (6 doses) (90)
Bioware (15,000
)
Muscle Augmentation R1 (7000) (.2E)
Muscle Toner R1 (8000) (.2E)
EDIT: Fixing the mistake Abs caught.
SECOND EDIT: Doing some switcharoos.
FINAL EDIT I SWEAR: Changing "High Pain Tolerance 2" to "Tough as Nails 1"