A few words on my new character, Rufus... Picture an innocent, naive, friendly and playful country boy with good looks and magical abilities. That's basically what he is.
Rufus was an abandoned child (I might have more to say of his real parents in future) adopted by an archmage by the name of Gandalf (of whom again I'll say more in a future post). He has this simple, childlike trust in all things, that all things are basically benign. He loves to play and loves magic, but dislikes all that studying needed to master it. Consequently, while he does possess real powers, they are not very great. He can create a
light as bright as a candle and cause it to move up to several feet away from him (lasts 1 hour), create a
shield around his body which cuts down a little on all forms of damage (lasts 1 hour),
heal minor cuts and bruises, and shoot out small
magic darts. (They sting very much, but are not lethal.) He can cast these spells as often as he likes, but each time he casts a spell there's a 50-50 chance he'll reach a state of
magical fatigue. Once that happens, he'll no longer be able to cast anymore spells until dawn the next day.
Rufus' mentor routinely makes him carry around their library all their huge magical tomes, with a view to honing his sinews. As a result, Rufus is very strongly built.
He also dislikes clothes as they hamper his absorption of mana.
Rufus has a
magic wand which he made with the help of his mentor as part of an assignment. The wand has the following abilities:
~
Create or
destroy up to 10 lbs of non-living, non-magical solid matter of any kind. (Cannot create or destroy anything more precious than silver.)
~
Alter the size, shape, color, texture, type etc. of up to 10 lbs of solid matter. Same restrictions as above.
~ Cause up to 10 lbs of solid matter to
levitate and float slowly in any desired direction. Applies to
all types of solid matter this time.
~ Create a
visual image of anything desired, though only up to an average adult human in size. (Lasts an hour unless 'put out' first.)
~ Cause an extremely bright flash of light that
dazzles all living beings that use sight within 30 feet. Affected beings are effectively blind for several minutes. User
can specify who will not be affcted at time of use.
As with Rufus, the wand can produce these spell effects as often as desired, but each time there's a 50-50 chance it'll reach a state of
magical fatigue. Once that happens, it'll no longer be useable until dawn the next day. If anyone other than Rufus tries to use the wand to produce the effects, their potency is halved (5 lbs, 15 feet etc.) and there's a 50% failure chance (if you fail, you must try again).
One curious thing about Rufus is his truly incredible
luck. Somehow things always seem to go his way. Blindfold him and let him walk into a minefield, and somehow he'll always miss the mines or the ones he steps on will always be faulty. If he were to bet, he'd always win somehow. If you try to attack him, somehow you'll trip or there'll be a sudden pain in your side and you'll miss.
How's that for a new character? Hope no one will hate him...