Shadowbone

Llanzo Kerr, also known as 'Shadowbone' was a young magi and practitioner of a unique type of obeah that allowed him necromantic abilities. He was the son of the Obeah Man Adrian who was a healer who lived near the beach of Orange Bay, Jamaica until the night of a fire in his beach hut home.

### **History**

Born in Montego Bay, Jamaica in 1988, Llanzo lived with his elderly father Adrian in a small seaside beach hut house, they didn't have much and Adrian's wife long ago left him, but Adrian's dedication to using magic in subtle ways to heal using potions and serums he brewed earned him a rep as the better than any doctor; many an old man and woman would visit the old mystic, who set up an 'alternative therapy' business in his hut, and have him alleviate or even cure aliments and illnesses, at least temporarily, better than any doctor could.

Adrian, however was a far more powerful magi than Llanzo realised, in 1996 Llanzo began to find snippets of information, photos, notes regarding his work with various superhumans in the 70's, fighting against criminals and evil superpowered threats alike; his dad was a superhero named Doctor Obeah (although he never used that name himself), and he never told him; however Adrian tried to explain to the boy that it wasn't a romanticised comic-book life, and he didn't enjoy many of his missions or even felt like they helped in the bigger picture.

As Llanzo grew, and began to himself develop the ability to tune and sense magic, he began to wonder why his father didn't use his supposedly powerful magic skills to stop the local churchgoers harassing him and his business, many clamed his use of strange potions and old obeah was a sign of voodoo and black magic and against the growing Christian conservatism on the island, in particular they accused him of using human remains in a lot of his cures and that his pagan rituals were a gateway for more satanic practices. Adrian explained to the boy that magic comes at a price, and is difficult and complex in any case; helping people and living a humble life rather than fighting against them was now his philosophy, taking a pacifistic ideal; he believed helping in small amounts, in everyday actions is what really changes the world.

Llanzo strongly disagreed.

In 2001, when Llanzo was 16 and out with friends, the boy returned to his home to find it burning, a crowd outside watched, several of them he claimed were smiling and recognised them from the local church group; he knew that many of these people knew Adrian personally and began making assumptions and accusations about the reasons why his wife, Llanzo's mother left. It turned out that Adrian was still inside.

After the fire was extinguished, Llanzo asked the police to investigate the church in a tearful fury, but found no evidence of murder or arson, claiming the fire was started by a candle that fell as he napped.

Llanzo didn't take the news well, and attempted to salvage what little he could of the hut, notably his father's staff, that was pretty much unscathed and a single, half-burned book of basic magic philosophy and his father's grimoire that was also half-burned, and that he had only started to understand; While a few of his regular patrons helped rebuild his hut, Llanzo refused to go into care, and started working in a fast food restaurant nearby to help pay for the repairs.

Angry at those who he assumed killed his father, and angry at his father for being a pacifist, Llanzo continued to study magic and medicine, but in the pursuit of revenge.

By this time he was attending Rhodes Hall High School, and became friends with Dee Bloomfield and Adam Rose, where he discovered Dee was a neohuman.

### **Personality**

Llanzo was a young man troubled by incomplete knowledge of his father's past, and his want to be an all-powerful being; though a kind and starry-eyed child, always wanting to learn and grow, his anger began to consume him the more he realised his dad would not push back against the judgement of the few locals who disagreed with his practice, though they were relentless, it eventually drove him to become more and more vengeful. This affected his magic as he discovered his ability to tune, causing him to delve in to ever-darker forms of obeah.

### **Appearance**

Llanzo was a tall, skinny Afro-Caribbean male with brown eyes, an almost tired expression, short, shaved hair; later he let the hair on his head grow longer and shaved the Obeah symbol for the Character of the Spirit of the Moon on the right side his head, that be burned into his skin so hair would never grow in the symbol again. He also had a number of other Obeah symbols on his arms and hands that he had tattooed onto his skin, asking a local tattoo artist to use a special ink he devised to help control and focus his mana.

### **Powers and Abilities**

#### **Powers**

**Necrobeah:** Llanzo was one of a handful of humans with the ability to 'tune' that let him sense and ultimately manipulate magical 'mana' to cast spells and incantations, in Llanzo's case, he studied small amounts of Obeah taught to him through his father and his books and own personal grimoire that Llanzo used as a base for his own form of obeah that he called "Necrobeah". Using his father's staff; an extremely old rod made from African Baobab wood, he began to delve into artes long-forbidden, creating a form of necromancy. He speaks most of his spells in deeply rolling Jamaican-English mixed with African dialects.

* **Limited Ritual Spirit Communion:** He learned to commune with certain spirits through a series of rituals and rites, however as his magic grew darker, his ability to contact more dangerous and negative spiritual entities grew. While he only ever developed rudimentary communication directly, later used several spells to gain control of these spirits.
* **Ritual Alchemy:** He had the ability to create potions and medicines with enhanced or supernatural properties, using a mix of practical alchemy, rituals and mental concentration and belief.
* **Spirit Binding Spells:** As part of his ability to sense spirits, Llanzo developed spells to bind spirits to objects, or better yet previously living matter such as bone, with the ultimate goal of trying to find a way to bind a spirit with a living target; though doing so would be dependant on the will and dominance of the personality of each. Although doing so only angered some darker spirits, forcing him to increasingly defend himself by creating negative energy wards and totems that he would attach to his father's staff, such as his father's rings.
* **Spirit Control Spells:** Once bound to a target he can cast further spells to increase his control over the entity, particularly allowing him to direct the bound spirit as his personal minions that obey his command.
* **Necrosteomancy:** Even before the death of his father Llanzo had been trying to study, in secret, the arte of bone-magic; his father used it to a small degree to heal, but he never delved into it's full potential. While studying the power of purposeful limitations within magic; with his study of what he began calling "Necro-Obeah", he learned to create spells that would affect only the bone of dead. This, however further heightened his connection with the darker side of magic. After years of practice and study he eventually learned to manipulate bone though spells, particularly bone that had been once living; Practicing on the skeletal remains of small animals such as rats and birds, and the odd buried pet, he learned to raise dead human bodies and harness spirits as a "brain" and necroplasma as fuel source; creating skeletal zombies that he could command; these spiritually-possessed zombies would not always follow his command at first and had to learn to "break in" the spirit before it is bound to a skeleton.
	+ **Necroplasma Summoning:** He developed spells to summon necroplasma through bone in the form of a pale green flame that could be used as concussive force, protective barriers or to harness and enhance his other spells, however summoning it was difficult and it would often damage the bone over time, eventually turning it into dust; this dust, however could be used to create enhanced Black Bonedust. He used several small bone-wands and later altered his father's rod with bone to act as a more powerful focus for the energy.
	+ **Bonedust Manipulation:** Llanzo learned to make a ritual bonedust, similar to the material his father used to make potions, however Llanzo used a much more complex ritual, using his own blood and human bone in the process, the rituals he used allowed him to manipulate the dust through a few simple actions and commands without having to continuously incantate, usually with his staff, and was stored in small satchels on his belt that were inlaid with Obeah symbols of focus. He could cause the dust to move fast enough to have concussive force and a variant of the dust contained sharp bone fragments that do some serious damage to flesh and other soft materials. He could imbue the dust with properties, such as using gunpowder to make one variant of the dust highly explosive. Another variant of bonedust was produced in the form of a black dust created after the summoning of necroplasma through bone, and was particularly more responsive to his spells and commands, to the point where it almost acted on it's own, though he had limited amounts of this.
	+ **Blackbone Necrofire:** A later combination of black bonedust and necroplasma that allowed him to focus necroplasma through black bonedust to create extremely powerful explosive force that could disintegrate matter; this turned the flame temporarily grey-silver, but could only do so via black bonedust, which would then utterly vaporise once used.

#### **Abilities**

* **Chemistry/Alchemy:** Like his father, Llanzo had a knack for chemicals, both practically in terms of medicine, and magic potions created by rituals, including special ink that he used to devise tattoos to help him focus his mana and protect himself from negative energies.
* **Limited Fighting Skills:** He had a small amount of self-defence knowledge, but none that he used often.
* **Some Medical Knowledge:** Before he left Jamaica for the US he was studying medicine, though it's uncertain if he still peruses this career.
* **High Intelligence:** He was credited with having a higher-than-average IQ.

### **Paraphernalia**

* **Mana Tattoos:** Using spelled bonedust, squid ink and ritual alchemy, Llanzo created a special ink that he asked a local tattoo artist to draw on his arms and hands to allow him to both focus his mana and help ward off potential negative attacks by spirits.

* **Rings of Warding:** He possesses three wooden rings from his father, apparently of African origin; they were said to have been created by the Vijiti (The Staves), an ancient, now almost extinct clan of magi who were dedicated to protecting several, now nonexistant kingdoms in Africa. The rings were said to have been warn by a trusted king to the Vijiti, but who ultimately betrayed them when his kingdom fell to invading forces. The rings had been in circulation, and there may have been more. Each ring is said to have innate magical protection abilities, one protects from negative spirits, one supposedly reduces the likelihood of serious injury and the last one is said to help 'focus belief', however which is which Llanzo often can't tell; After millennia the magic may have somewhat faded, but their psychological and placebic qualities may help Llanzo's spellcasting and confidence.
* **Staff of Roho:** An ancient, and apparently particularly powerful staff made from Baobab wood of a particular tree in Africa, carved by Adrien himself whilst he visited Africa as a teenager; a tree that was supposedly at the centre of the Vijiti's spiritual and magical circles that supposedly acted as a nexus for the afterlife, but was now all but gone. As such the Staff is said to have had the potential to harness spiritual energy and act as a focus to ritual communications with spirits. Over the years, the staff has become embroidered and further carved with patterns using variants of magical ink, that Adrian learned to create. He wrapped the mid-section of the staff in leather from an ox that he helped hunt and sacrifice and give thanks for. The staff posses a large, gnarled end, threaded with strings, and tired with two old gourds that hung from it. The staff can let Llanzo manipulate, store and project massive amounts of necroplasma.
* **Bonedust:** Originally created by Adrian from the ground bones of animals such as chickens or goats through a two-hour-long ritual along with other ingredients, the fine dust is 'activated' by an incantation where it can channel various properties including healing or spirit channelling. If breathed in the dust can, in theory be used to temporarily control living things. Llanzo later created three variants from human corpses; one a fine dust as per his father's rite, another of his own creation contained sharp bone fragments and was specifically created as a weapon. The third contained gunpowder that he could cause explosions with; although this destroys the dust and he must again create more. Another variant of bonedust was produced in the form of burned bone dust created after the summoning of necroplasma through bone, and was particularly more responsive to his spells and commands, to the point where it almost acted on it's own, though he had limited amounts of this.

### **Limitations and Weaknesses**

Llanzo was argumentative and often deeply cynical, he became vengeful and dark over the years after his father's death.

His knowledge of magic and Obeah was nowhere near as much as his father Adrian's, and his anger made him fall down a darker path because of it.

Like many magi, his magic was based around incantations, and preventing him speaking and moving his hands severely reduced or utterly prevented him from casting.