erky Mabama

Odain Alias: Nerky

Played By: Antaeus Feldspar

Homeworld: Original Concept Earth

Physical Description:

Nerky is a shrimpy little kid of about ten or so.  His ears stick out from under a head of unruly flame-red hair, and his face is littered with freckles.  Set in the bone of his skull are four light-green gems:  two small ones behind each ear, one above and outside the arch of each eyebrow. He has a skinny build, and is nimble enough.

Powers:

Nerky is a wizard with some formal training.  To listen to him tell it, one might think he was a mighty mage, capable of ripping continents asunder and drawing stars down from the sky.  In actuality, he knows just a few minor spells, not much more than cantrips.  They are as follows:

• ANTI-SNEAK:  Summons a tiny ball of smoke which hangs in the air near to the caster.  If anyone approaches, even someone trying to approach stealthily, the ball of smoke will pop silently and the caster will be warned.  The only exceptions are if the thoughts of the approacher are well-shielded by psi or magic, or cannot be recognized by magic (as might be the case with robots or mechanical intelligences.)

• ITCHYGOO:  Summon and fling a handful of goopy substance that causes an annoying itch on nearly every type of skin.  While the itch can be ignored temporarily, it is persistent...  and the substance has a nasty habit of replenishing itself if every last little bit hasn't been scrubbed off or nullified.

• STICKYGOO:  Summon and fling a handful of sticky substance that adheres to nearly everything.  Unlike the "itchygoo" cantrip, this substance does not replenish itself, and it loses its adhesive quality after an hour anyways.

• WHISPER:  Allows the caster to point to anyone in a line of sight, and speak to his pointer finger in a whisper.  The person he points at will hear his whisper as if he were right next to them.

In addition, Nerky can use magic to influence his own movement, and give himself a little edge while running or dodging. Nerky's magic is minor enough that even someone of his expertise doesn't suffer any significant drain when casting it; the practical limit, however, is two spells in the space of fifteen minutes.

Weaknesses: See under "Personality".

Skills:

Nerky honestly does have a solid grasp of magical theory, including several different forms and styles of magic.  He doesn't know how to execute most of this knowledge, but his rough knowledge of how it would be done is pretty reliable.  He might be able to teach some of this knowledge -- except that he's a horrible teacher.

Nerky is very proud of his nimbleness and speed, and brags that he's never been beaten in a footrace or a game of dodge ball.  This is only true in his mind, but he is a fairly fast runner, and has had to get very good at dodging after having a great many things hurled at him.

Equipment:

Nerky arrived in Odain with a set of warm-weather clothes:  a teal cotton T-shirt with a pocket, a pair of knee-length shorts made of a metallic fabric Nerky calls "dintish", and rubber-treaded tennis shoes.  He has a handful of coinage from his homeworld.

Other than that, he possesses only one item of significance, and that is a knife Nerky calls 'Spellcarver'.  This is the equivalent of a jackknife for whittling magic.  It appears to be a fairly ordinary dagger in a dintish sheath.  When held in the hand, the edge of the blade glows faintly blue, and even someone not normally sensitive to magic will be able to vaguely perceive its shape.  Someone with actual magical talent can actually use the blade to try and cut at magical constructs.

Of course, Spellcarver is not really a very powerful tool, no matter what Nerky might claim.  Just as a jackknife would be a disappointing tool for cutting through concrete, Spellcarver will have little to no effect on a spell cast to last by a competent, trained wizard.  If the wizard who cast the spell was untrained, didn't secure the spell itself against interference, or if the spell itself would go away in time, then Spellcarver might be able to either weaken its effect or hasten its demise. (Combat spells are constructed crudely, with the intent to be fast rather than seamless, so theoretically Spellcarver could be used defensively in combat.  There's only two little problems -- first, cutting apart the spell construct of a fireball, for example, doesn't do a thing to dissipate the fire it's already generated.  Second, even if one successfully cut apart a magical construct before its magic was converted, the effect of releasing that much raw magic under pressure...  could have unpredictable results.) There are also sorts of magic that Spellcarver just cannot, under any circumstances, affect.

Personality:

If Nerky was asked, he'd say that he's well-liked all around, that people admire him for both his prodigious talent and for his personality, which is equal parts sparkling wit and keen intellectual flair.  He'd be surprised if anyone managed to make him understand that most people want to strangle him.  Nerky is a know-it-all, and while he sometimes *does* know what he's talking about, he's likely to patronizingly explain his best guess and stubbornly stick to it even when it's proven utterly wrong.  He also holds the personal conviction that whatever he can do at all, he is the best at -- and again, no amount of evidence will convince him that this is untrue. He is particularly proud of (besides, of course, his wizardry talent, which he considers earthshaking) his swiftness at running and dodging.

Connections:

Nerky comes from a planet rather analogous to modern-day Earth.  The driving force of this Earth is magic rather than technology, but it has manifested some strikingly similar patterns; for instance, the primary entertainment comes from enchanted steel spheres whose surfaces show moving pictures magically transmitted from a remote location.  Nerky is a particular aficianado of a sitcom about a bumbling father who's secretly a bumbling "techno" ("techno" being a mythical human who can do incredible feats through the power of machinery.)

Nerky was cast into Odain when his wizardry teacher decided to reward his prodigious natural talent by showing him a dimensional gate in action.  As he studied his mentor's gate, and was about to comment on how his teacher really could have made it a little less sloppily, he felt himself being picked up and hurled through the gate, which closed after him immediately. Nerky believes that either it was a roving band of international megacriminals, who recognized his nascent power and decided to eliminate the threat he would soon pose to their world domination, or that his wizardry teacher did it but meant it as a test, knowing that his brilliant star pupil would surely figure out the construction of a return gate in no time at all.  In either case, Nerky has no immediate way back to his home world, nor any connections yet in Odain.