Quezal Cotella

Sprite by KueiVolonte

A human who self-styles himself as a knight, **Quezal Cotella** is an offworlder with a strange ability that he calls an *"Epithet"*, a word inscribed into his very soul that allows him to perform supernatural feats. Using this Epithet, *"Faith"*, in tandem with other Epithets he calls *"Handles"*, he searches for the Stones of Lupin, artifacts from his world that he lost upon entry.

## Statistics

**General Skills**: Acrobatics, Athletics, Insight, Investigation, Medicine, Perception, Persuasion, Survival

## Appearance

Quezal is in all aspects similar to Zephyr Sekery in terms of appearance, leading one to believe he is his world's version of Zephyr. The only differences appear to mostly be that he is a bit more toned than his PlayDis-native twin, and his hair, though still windswept, is better kept.

### Attire

Quezal pretty much only had one outfit on him when he came to Terra, and that is his trademark set of armor. It shines with steel make, but is somewhat poorly made, as it only functions about as well as half plate in this world, given that his world does not place nearly so much value in that sort of armor. It's a very simple set of armor, aside from the grating on the visor and the feather motif that goes right over his ears. Somehow, though, this doesn't play any sort of havoc on his perception or hearing...it's odd, but it manages to make Quezal look memorable yet average.

## Personality

Quezal is a disciplined individual, showing himself to be a serious man when the chips are down. He understands that two people who have come into conflict cannot always find a peaceful solution to their problems, but he also desires to keep those he trusts safe and sound. He can mess around a bit, but his focus is not to be trifled with, even if he isn't as intelligent or quick on the draw as an inquisitive mind.

However, he is as kind as he is serious in that regard. Being a man who styles himself as a knight, of course he's going to try and talk someone down if he thinks it can be done, and he always tries his best to help out someone in need. He is more extroverted than introverted to be sure, even if at the end of the day he still wants his money for being your personal bodyguard (you might have gotten a discount, though).

### Drives and Obstacles

**Goal(s):** Find the Stones of Lupin and get home.

**Motivations:** Quezal was raised to be a very protective person. He wishes to be the best knight his world has ever seen, which applies to Terra, too, now.

**Obstacles:** His Epithet is Faith, which isn't entirely helpful to being protective. Also, he's a bit too protective sometimes.

## Connections

### Friends and Foes

**Friends:**

* Crimson
* Friends/variants from homeworld: Tara, Anore, Tsukiya, Kayle

**Allies:**

* Ellie Gante (Bard)

**Frenemies:**

* Thankfully, none on Terra.

**Enemies:**

* Technically that one wizard who wanted to kill him, he guesses?

## Skills and Abilities

### Acquired/Learned Abilities

* **Great Weapon Proficiency:** Though this isn't quite how his proficiency manifests in his world, Quezal is indeed skilled with his weapon of choice. He has the *Great Weapon Fighting Style* in addition to *Great Weapon Mastery*.
	+ When you roll a 1 or 2 on a damage die for an attack you make with a melee weapon that you are wielding with two hands, you can reroll the die and must use the new roll, even if the new roll is a 1 or a 2. The weapon must have the two-handed or versatile property for you to gain this benefit.
	+ On your turn, when you score a critical hit with a melee weapon or reduce a creature to 0 hit points with one, you can make one melee weapon attack as a bonus action. Before you make a melee attack with a heavy weapon that you are proficient with, you can choose to take a -5 penalty to the attack roll. If the attack hits, you add +10 to the attack’s damage.
* **Lunging Glaive:** This used to be a minor upgrade that had Quezal choose between giving his weapon reach or giving him +2 damage. Turns out that somehow translates into another feat; specifically, *Charger.*
	+ When you use your action to Dash, you can use a bonus action to make one melee weapon attack or to shove a creature.
	+ If you move at least 10 feet in a straight line immediately before taking this bonus action, you either gain a +5 bonus to the attack’s damage roll (if you chose to make a melee attack and hit) or push the target up to 10 feet away from you (if you chose to shove and you succeed).

### Skills

* **Epithet Post-Combat Rules:** Quezal is pretty good at patching himself up after fights. After any fight, he can roll 5d10 Hit Dice to recover HP, and he doesn't lose Hit Dice by doing so. Short rests similarly restore all of his HP.
* **Epithet Technicalities:** Technically speaking, an Epithet ability isn't necessarily magical. Unless otherwise stated, Quezal always has access to his abilities, even when supernatural effects are traditionally inhibited or disabled.
* **Trust in Truth:** When you believe something, people sense it. It's very easy to tell when you're being truthful, but you're also a terrible, terrible liar. The jury is out on cases where you avoid answering specific parts of a question though, and you don't always need to answer.
	+ Advantage on Persuasion checks when arguments are based upon what the bearer perceives as truth.
	+ Disadvantage on Deception checks.

### Inscribed Faith

Quezal's Primary Epithet, the one that he always has and the one he was born with. Despite being somewhat proficient with it, the abilities he has from it are somewhat limited, making him somehow on-par with the other characters.

* **Absolute Confidence:** You are not very easily discouraged. That's not to say you can never be discouraged at all, but if something is even remotely within the realm of possibility for you, any and all attempts to persuade you otherwise will not work under any circumstances. That being said, this doesn't necessarily guarantee success, nor does it mean you HAVE to do it. Just, you know. You can totally do that. Maybe.
	+ Confers immunity to Frighten.
* **Leap of Faith:** Though not a literal leap in most cases, you have a habit of rushing into things and somehow coming out fine, against all odds. Once per short rest, you can turn any of your failures into a penalized success (succeed at a cost). You cannot use this on a natural 1.
	+ Success at a cost can come in many forms, ranging from a free weapon attack on Quezal to placing him in a narratively bad situation. Basically, give him what he was trying to do, but make sure he's punished for not accepting his failure.
* **Surefire Beliefs:** Use your action to place your faith in one of your allies. By doing so, you give them Advantage on their d20 rolls for 3 rounds. Only one ally can benefit from this at a time, but you can switch targets before the buff runs out for free at any point on your turn. Can't target self. Used to cost 1 Stamina, but this ends up being incredibly overpowered in this system. Burns 3d4 (7) HP to compensate.
* **Don't Give Up!:** At any time, you can speak words of encouragement to one ally, inspiring them and allowing them to push themselves beyond their normal limits. You allow that player to heal up to half of your own HP, after you've already subtracted the cost of this ability. Once per short rest; burns 3d4 (7) HP.
* **Self-Assurance:** Take a full action (action and bonus action) to remind yourself that you can in fact do this. You can take two turns next time you get to act (gaining use of two actions and two bonus actions on that turn), and if both actions succeed in some manner, the HP you spend is refunded and you recover just as much on top of that. Burns 1d4 (3) HP. You don't gain any extra movement on the turn *Self-Assurance* activates.
* **Reckless Charge:** Throw caution to the wind and charge up to your movement speed into something potentially dangerous, trusting the whims of fate with your life. You take half damage from all hazards you move through (including attacks of opportunity), and if you succeed rolls made to evade or reduce damage from such hazards, you take no damage instead. You also ignore difficult terrain while using it! Burns 3d4 (7) HP and takes a bonus action to use, but does not replace the Dash action.

### Handlefaire

The art of using a second Epithet, known as a Handle, bestowed by artefacts such as the Arsene Amulet or Stones of Lupin. A Mundie (read: literally everyone else) can gain two Handles without issue, but Quezal cannot use more than one without significant risk to his health, since he is already Inscribed.

* **Rewriting:** Use a bonus action to apply a Handle to yourself, or remove your currently-equipped Handle. When applying a Handle, you gain temporary HP from that Handle's Talent, unless that modifier is negative. This HP lasts until depleted, the Handle is removed, or the end of combat. If you have a Handle equipped at the start of combat, you gain temporary HP upon rolling initiative. If you've already applied a Handle's temporary HP at some point during combat, you cannot gain more from it by re-applying the Handle.

#### DEFENDER (12/60)

Gain 2d4+3 temporary HP.

* **Auto-Cover:** Gain the Protection Fighting Style. A shield is not required to use it with this feature.
	+ Use your reaction to impose disadvantage on an attack against someone within 5ft of you.
* **Natural Aggro:** As a master of defense, your job is not only to take hits but also keep your party safe. Part of this is keeping the enemy's attention. When in battle, people have a tendency to want to target you first above all else.
* **Cover Guard:** You spend your action preparing for an enemy to attack a vulnerable ally within half of your movement range. All physical-based attacks aimed at allies within that range at or under half their max HP will instead strike you, and you rush to that ally's side to take the hit instead. This can happen multiple times before your next turn rolls around so long as the triggering ally is within the ability's effective range, and each attack's damage is decreased by an amount equal to your Proficiency Modifier. Burns 3d4 (7) HP.
* **Protect:** Sometimes it's worth it to just brace for impact. Once per combat, you can use this Ability as an action to gain 9d4 temporary HP that you can use to take hits. This HP lasts until it's depleted or until the end of combat. Burns 3d4 (7) HP.
* **Light Screen:** You use your action to create a BARRIER with 5d4 HP, up to 15ft wide, within 20ft of you. It counts as transparent full cover for the sake of defense and accuracy rolls, and you can move it within its effective range for the duration of your turn as a bonus action or outside of your turn as a reaction without consuming HP. If an enemy overkills it, any and all damage left over is still absorbed. Burns 1d4 Stamina. If Quezal is Silenced or otherwise has magic disabled, he can't use this.
* **What Doesn't Kill You:** Add your proficiency modifier to the temporary HP gained when switching to this Handle.
* **Cover Bash:** When using *Cover Guard* or *Auto-Cover* to block attacks, you can use this Ability to make an attack against your aggressor, if they're in range, without using up your reaction. The triggering attack has to be *blocked*, meaning that you either dodge an attack / take damage as a result of defending someone with *Cover Guard* or the attack that you imposed disadvantage on using *Auto-Cover* needs to miss entirely. Burns 1d4 (3) HP if you decide to use this Ability.

### Weaknesses

* **Stamina Costs:** True to the rules of Anime Campaign, all of Quezal's active abilities that don't quite line up with 5e actively damage him when he uses them--and thanks to the otherworldly compensation, moreso than they did before. He may have more HP here than before, but waiting him out is still a valid strategy.
* **Situational Damage:** Quezal is a very faithful individual. He is not, however, a destructive one, as his only traditional way to damage people is his 1d10 glaive with +7 to hit and +4 to damage unless he trades off his accuracy or has 10 ft to back up and drive his glaive into the poor target with first.
* **Handling Drawbacks:** It takes a bonus action to apply or remove a Handle. What people would think is that Quezal can change his Handle at the drop of a hat. What this actually means is that it takes two rounds to change Handles--one to remove his current Handle, another to apply the new one.

## Equipment

### Key Items

* **Stones of Lupin:** Magical stones from Quezal's world that bestow Epithets known as Handles onto the users. Quezal hopes to collect all four that he lost upon entering this world.
	+ **DEFENDER:** A green gemstone that bestows the *Defender* Handle. 12/60 Proficiency.

### Weapons

* **Featherkin Glaive:** A Glaive used by Quezal's father, Ouran Cotella.
	+ 1d10 Slashing, Heavy, Reach, Two-Handed.

### Other Equipment

* **Featherkin Armor:** The armor Quezal had on when he was brought to this world. Sadly, since his world doesn't value the old ways as much as Terra does, this armor is rather shoddily made and too lightweight to be proper plate armor regardless, counting moreso as medium armor than heavy armor.
	+ Base AC 15. +5 Def. Stealth Disadvantage.

### Inventory

* **Wallet:** A wallet filled with a strange currency. (It's actually USD money.) Holds gold, silver, and copper well enough but not perfectly.
* **Trail Mix:** Some good old trail mix! Everyone loves it! (Note: Not everyone loves it.) Comes with nuts and berries that are good for a snack on the run. Actually half-decent. Sadly doesn't restore Stamina *or* HP.

## Biography

*"Signs of tampering all over the station. Missing keys, misplaced files, our footage has been corrupted and cut early into the night...it's like a phantom came in and not a man with an Epithet."*

*The chief of police, Darla Merchez, explained the situation to us. Me, and my partners, Barry Crimsona and Michel Eisen. I wasn't with the force, but Michel was, and Barry was a private investigator. Me? I was just some extra muscle--a self-styled knight, but someone who wanted to help out wherever he could. I've helped Michel out of some tough spots before, and Barry has a tendency to keep me around to help stave off any enemies who might wanna throw him off. It's a simple job that I have, but an important one. I keep the great minds of our group safe.*

*My name is Quezal Cotella. Like I said, I'm a self-styled Knight, a protector-for-hire of sorts in North Pizzicato City. I was trained by my father, Ouran Cotella, in the arts of the glaive and protection, in the hopes that one day I could protect the people I love from certain doom. I hadn't found many friends for life aside from Michel and Barry at that point, but putting my talents to work as hired muscle has worked out pretty well too.*

*"I see…" Barry looked at the evidence in front of him in deep contemplation. Michel crossed his arms in frustration--I couldn't help but remember that he was there when the crime was committed, so of course he'd blame himself in some capacity. That would only make sense. I put a hand on his shoulder, trying to comfort him, but he just sort of stood there. He didn't brush me off--so he appreciated it--but it was obvious how much this still ate at him.*

*"Did we get any fingerprints?" Michel speaks up for a moment to ask one of the more obvious questions. "Obviously our thief isn't some common criminal, but even they make rookie mistakes sometimes."*

*"None," said Darla. "We hardly even got some basic details out of the eyewitnesses--whoever our perp is, he covered his tracks, and covered them well enough despite leaving more than enough evidence that he was here."*

*"Indeed, the mildly destroyed state of the evidence room keeps being brought up here," said Barry. "But while many of these reports speculate that this was the end goal, why simply stop at the evidence room? Obviously, we're dealing with a destructive Epithet--a weapon or tool couldn't have caused this level of ruckus. But look here--" He pointed to a picture of the evidence cabinets. Warped, shattered, just in general looking like it had all fallen apart from stress. A few things there actually looked like they had imploded somehow. The air ducts that the suspect had escaped through was right above it, the vent covering it just as broken.*

*"The cabinets themselves…" I said, green eyes glancing all over the photo wondering what he wanted to point out. Barry never told anyone to "look here" unless he wanted to point out a detail, so of course I wanted to see if I could guess it before the investigator could tell everyone else. But of course, I couldn't see it. "Is it something about how they were destroyed?"*

*"Precisely, my dear Quezal." Barry smiled at me, always encouraging of my superior guessing skills. "If you'll notice, all of these points of damage are centered like a ladder, one on top of another, in a sense." He tapped the line of warped and collapsed drawers--sure enough, I could see it, and from there it didn't take long for me to piece a few things together.*

*"You're right," I said, stopping his line of explanation in an attempt to finish it for him. "And that tells us a couple things, right?"*

*"Right…" Michel was getting in on it too--we were way too used to Barry's deductions by now. "The first and obvious one is that this Epithet we're dealing with works on touch. Anyone could guess that. But you're talking about the level of destruction on each drawer, right?"*

*"Exactly, Michel! My, you're both catching on rather quickly now. Notice how little some of these drawers have been distorted--that implies a very short time in which our culprit could have made contact, yes?"*

*"Which means that they were moving quickly. Probably in a panic from the officers that were hot on his heels, I'd bet."*

*"Which only makes sense. But if their goal was to cause destruction, they wouldn't have stopped here. There would be far more to account for than a few drawers, the Stone of Lupin, and the door. So I have more than enough reason to believe their motives are quite different."*

*"Did they mean to steal it, then? The Stone of Lupin?"*

*"That would be my guess, Michel. Imagine, if you would, a scenario…"*

*We didn't have to imagine very hard. The culprit destroyed the door deliberately to get in, and proceeded to walk right to the drawer the Stone of Lupin was being held in. They opened the drawer, suppressing their power, before proceeding to grab the Stone of Lupin with their bare hands--well, as bare as they could be, given no fingerprints. By pure accident, they couldn't contain the power of their Epithet while it was in their grasp, accidentally shattering the Stone. In doing so, they took the Epithet held within whether they intended to or not, and were shocked by the sudden rush of a second Epithet. They must have bumped into something and caused some noise, because the police weren't far behind after that--in a panic, they climb the drawers, and escape through the air ducts, composed enough by that point to not bring the ducts crashing down around them. They made their escape from there, avoiding all detection and notice.*

*"You got all of that from the…?" Darla appeared to be shocked and confused by how quickly the three of us could figure that out.*

*"It's quite elementary, Chief Darla." Barry chuckled and stood from his seat. "You'll find that when we have the culprit in our grasp and making his testimony as to what truly happened, everything we've said here will be true."*

*"Wait a minute. 'His'?" Michel looked at Barry as he stood. "What do you mean, 'his'?"*

*"Oh, right. I suppose only Quezal would be familiar with my experience with these kinds of distortions, hm?" Barry patted my black hair, ruffling its windswept mess up a bit. At first I didn't understand what he meant either, but then I remembered what he could be talking about. Of course...this wasn't our culprit's first job. So with the destructive Epithet, and with how it works on touch…*

*"Wait, Barry, you don't think it could have been…?"*

*"Indeed, my dear Cotella. I believe it's the very same man who's been committing similar thefts these past two years. That same man we've let get away so many times before…"*

*"The Phantom Thief of Chaos?!"*

*That name sent a shock through the two police workers in the room as well.*

*"What?! Crimsona, what do you mean by this?!" Michel, the officer that he was, had to try and get control of the situation back. "The Phantom Thief of Chaos tried to steal the Stone of Lupin?!"*

*"Are you truly surprised, Michel? Why wouldn't he?"*

*"But that means…!"*

*And this was where they lost me. "Wait, this means…?"*

*"Are you aware, Quezal, that more ruins were discovered rather close to Pizzicato City? Ruins similar to the ruins where they found not only the Arsene Amulet, but also the ruins where the Stone of Lupin was unearthed?"*

*"Wait, what?! Why haven't I heard of that?!"*

*"The government wants to keep it under wraps, given what happened in Sweet Jazz City with the Arsene Amulet. And this news about the Stone of Lupin is like to bury the secret even further for the time being. But if the Phantom Thief managed to look through Pizzicato's files, then it's entirely possible that he knows of its existence by now, as well…"*

*"We need to go there! Now!" Michel was vehement about this, but Darla was quick to step in and hold him back before he could grab his sword and peashooter.*

*"Stand down, Officer Eisen. We can't act hastily right now--the last thing we want is to go into this underprepared." She gave Michel a look, and, with a fire still burning in his eyes, he sat down, stewing a bit. "That being said, I don't suppose you yourself have a plan to stop this, Investigator Crimsona…?"*

*Barry shook his head. "Not a very concrete one, no. But we will still need someone to keep watch over these new ruins while we formulate a plan."*

*Darla sighed, apparently caught between a rock and a hard place. "Then who would you suggest…? All of our finest are in Sweet Jazz City, aiding the police there in hopes of sniffing out the Arsene Amulet."*

*Before I could complain that this implies Michel isn't one of Pizzicato's finest, Barry wrapped his arm around my shoulder, and my armor clanked heavily against itself as I was taken by surprise.*

*"Thankfully, we won't need your finest. We need only have Faith."*

*...Faith. My Epithet.*

*"...uh…?! I didn't agree to any of this…?!"*

*My name is Quezal Cotella. And this is my story.*

After being stationed at the ruins, Quezal and a group of four other individuals encountered a thief with the Epithet of Collapse who wanted to steal the treasures within for himself. They managed to defeat him soundly enough, and discovered an ancient prophecy in the process that foretold what they could only assume was the end of the world. Given all of this information, the party decided to do everything in their power to stop it, and set out on a quest to find out more, taking with them the five Stones of Lupin that held their alternate Epithets--their Handles. Somewhere along the line, however, Quezal somehow woke up in Peregrine with four of the Stones, and after being subsequently mugged of all four, now searches for the treasures he lost, as well as a way home.

### Points of Interest

**Former Homes:** None

**Former Jobs:** None

## Notes

* **Also Appears in:** *Stones of Lupin*
* **Name Origin:** Named after the Dragoon Character in Oralce, Quezal Aeromachina (otherwise known as Quezal Sekery, who is also the namesake for Zephyr's Roccan name). The name "Quezal" (and thusly this version's surname, Cotella) is evocative of Quetzalcoatl, the feathered serpent god in Mesoamerican culture.

1. ↑ Refers to "fear of the unknown", as in anything he does not know about