Baptiste

*"I wasn't...exactly in the best place to stop them...you know how it is."~*Baptiste on the murder of Dustin's family

Baptiste was the leader and supposed founder of the Black Fingers - an illicit False God cult of the Empire. He was a ruthless and brutal man, hellbent on his arcane goals. His objective was the destruction of the Empire in order to end the worship of the Four and in result put himself in a position of power.

## **Description**

Baptiste was a man in his middle ages, middle of stature, with no defining facial features which may as well belong to a local fisherman, a wealthy merchant or a highborn noble. His persona was completely unidentifiable due to its plainness in face and plain choice of style, which didn't made him a target for any kind of suspicion looking completely indistinguishable to the human eye.

He was bald, with black eyes, black trimmed beard and slight laughing wrinkles. After enough careful observing of his mannerisms you can probably spot a mild mocking attitude written on his face while he talks.

His body although generally dressed with leather pants, a vest and a white shirt with long sleeves is not entirely natural in shape as it might seem. One of his arms entirely misses, replaced by a pulsating black mass or the heart of the immortal False Goddess Shayla, his patron diety, which he protects. This merge with a god made him almost a diety in nature, even though he was human.

## **Personality and Traits**

Baptiste's character although not presented in the story was well-known by his apprentice Senecius who saw him as extremely cruel, manipulative and unscrupulous in everything he did, a person who looked as if he was born evil in birth and it was his natural state of being to sow chaos however much he could. He was also a very talented leader nurturing his followers, pushing them to express their most primal and brutish traits by cunningly manipulating them through their weaknesses thus making himself a loyal army of former lowlife criminals or sometimes good altar boys from the church of the Four like Senecius once was.He was very good in blending in and didn't really stand out in a room.

It was evident to the Nameless Brotherhood that he was threat because of how quickly he restored the Black Fingers back to their past glory after their destruction a few years ago, so they realised they had to take the necessary action and kill him for good. It was shown by his quick exchange with them, that even though he holds a certain brave self-assuring charisma, he was still a coward who would do anything in order to save his own hide.

## **Powers and Abilities**

### Bad Luck

Holding the heart of Shayla the goddess of bad luck in his body, Baptiste had unique superhuman powers. He had the ability, almost invisibly to the naked eye, to transport extremely fast from place to place. It is seen as a weird spectral effect, as if he doesn't move at all and you blink repeatedly while he moves through space.

He could also manipulate fate and circumstances, so that luck isn't on his enemy's side. An example was him making enemy attacks miss even though they have surely hit him.

Another diety ability was his innability to be harmed, with most attacks phasing right through him.

### Needle Barrage

One of his signature weapons were his poisonous needles which he sent in high velocity and numbers at his targets with low chance to escape the deathly poison from injecting into their bodies.