Big Al

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### Early Childhood

The memories of Al’s childhood are vague at best. He remembers that he had an older brother and a younger sister, but he cannot recall their names. The place he was born and even the face of his own mother are lost to him. All of that was burned away when his village was raided. Monsters in the guise of people descended upon his home. They brought fire and steel to a place of peace. The horrors in the shape of men killed without remorse and took away those that were not killed. Even now Al, years after getting free, still feels like the ones that died that day were the lucky ones.

In the slave pits of those monsters Al saw and experienced horrors beyond what his young mind could comprehend. There in those pits he learned what true suffering was and it was not delivered at the hands of the slavers. Those monsters were cruel but they paled in comparison to the other slaves. Locked away and beaten down, the slaves became truly depraved and deranged creatures. At first Al would pray with all his might for the gods to save him, then he just started to pray that the other slaves would leave him alone, then he simply prayed that the gods would just let him die, and finally he simply prayed no more.

### Escaping slavery

There was no great slave revolt or grand rescue from heroes that freed Al and some of the other surviving slaves. He was just collateral. A battle took place between two large armies. Neither side even knew the camp was there as they fired artillery and potent magics at each other. The vast majority of the slavers and the slaves were utterly destroyed in the blast and those that survived not a single soul was left in one piece.

### A New Family

Al had no way of knowing how much time he lay unconscious but he awoke for the first time in years inside a soft warm bed. From the elbows down his arms were little more than stumps and most of his body was badly burned. Other children were in beds nearby with similar injuries but all of different species. The children, like himself, were wounded but rescued slaves. Over the weeks all of the children were nursed back to health by other older children and one kindly old human man. With the help of his medicine nearly every wound on the children were healed like magic. Not a scar was left save for the worst of the wounds. Those with missing body parts, like Al, were replaced with metal contraptions. The old man also taught the children. He imparted knowledge of great machines and natural remedies that could nearly replicate magic with their incredible and varied effect.

For years Al found true happiness. He was even given his name by the old man. All of the kids that stayed after they were healed up took the last name Faber, and since Al also couldn’t remember his first name he was given one too. Al threw himself into learning thanks to a genuine love of the craft and his love for the old man. Unfortunately, nothing good would ever really last in Al’s life. No matter how many potions and formulae used to extend a life, without something truly magnificent all old men will eventually die.

Al did not take the loss of another important person dying, not in a world so fun of magic. So he set off, desperate to find a way to revive his mentor and surrogate father at any cost.

### The Witchmarket

After years of desperate adventuring, studying, and searching Al finally found the Witchmarket. Here in this legendary place anything and everything was for sale. He could find a way to bring back his mentor, his dead family, even his arms. Al did not make it ten minutes before an impossibly old woman appeared before him. She slowly dragged a car behind her that seemed to contain the universe itself inside the myriad of jars, cages, bottles, and boxes that lined the cart.

The crone claimed to know exactly what he came for and she could give it to him. She praised him for his dedication and his pure heart. She showered praise upon him for finding the market and for being so selfless. She offered a trade as a reward for all his good deeds, she would take away all the pain of his loss in exchange for the magic he sought. Naïve

to the way of the fey and far too trusting of kind old faces.

The crone granted him magic, placing a raging core of the stuff inside of him. That burning magical furnace inside of him was far beyond his ability to control and it consumed him. The magic did not eat away at his body but instead it attacked his mind. It burned away the memories of those he cared about, those that he loved, and those that he lost. Those memories and emotions became fuel for the hag as she grew young before his very eyes.

By the time Al finally got the ranging furnace of magic under control it had consumed nearly every happy memory that existed within him. Every person he had ever loved was gone from his mind. All that was left within him were his failures and the years of pain and torment and he was left alone in somewhere that definitely was not the witchmarket. He had somehow found himself to some place known as Babel.

All alone in this unknown city surrounded by strange beings, Al did not feel fear or emptiness. Instead he felt a swelling of hope. Whatever dark magic had stripped him of his memories could not strip him of the love that others had showered upon him over the years. Whether that hag has meant to crush him with despair or use the longing left behind to create another monster in the guise of a man, she had failed. Al has passed through the challenge and once again been born anew.

### His Greatest Failure

The hag and her curse had taken many of Al memories but it left behind most of his truly horrible memories. One of which he wishes in particular that he could forget. During the worst year as a slave, the other slaves had become increasingly aggressive. They horded the food that was tossed into the slave pits and kept it only for those in their group. Anyone else had to trade favors to gain food and the favors that they wanted from a young Al would normally lead him too sore for work the next day which would just result in more abuse from the slavers.

In the back of the pits he found a little gnome girl. She was likely new to the pits as her clothes were mostly intact and there was still life and hope within her eyes. She had somehow gotten hold of a moldy loaf of bread. Thanks to how small she was that loaf could have easily been shared by the two of them. With her skilled hands And Al’s strength they likely could have teamed up and kept each other fed and relatively safe…. Unfortunately that was not what was on Al’s mind. He only saw the food and that he wanted it. When she tried to stop him he struck the girl. Then he struck her again…. And again… and again. He beat another child to death over a loaf of bread, a loaf of bread that became so soaked in her blood from his violent outburst that he could not bring himself to eat it. When Al finally became free, the first thing he did when he was able to was to have his hair permanently changed to the color of that gnome girl’s so that he would forever remember his sin.

### Personality

On the outside Al is the life of the party. He is a boisterous, heavy metal enthusiast, party goer. On the insider however, he hated himself. His own less than fortunate life coupled with his positive memories being stolen by a fey have given him quite a bleak outlook on his own life. Al is also incredibly strong. Instead of crumpling under the weight of his own self loathing and guilt he strives to better himself and the world around him.

### Appearance

At a truly impressive eight foot three inches, Al is on the higher end of height even for a half giant. Coupled with the size of his broad muscular frame he is a wall of muscle. From his elbows down his body transitions from flesh and bone to a pair of massive adamantine magitek-gauntlets that take up the role of hands. His most striking feature however is the magical furnace inside of his chest. The light and heat radiates out of it with the slight rumbling of an engine.

### Powers

Al has been gifted with a wide array of technological and alchemical knowledge granted to him by an old man that he can barely remember. Coupled with a magical furnace within his chest that powers glowing runes on his body, Al has a bizarre array of metal based magics at his disposal.

### Place of Residence

Al currently lives and works out of a warehouse that he rebuilt to be both his home and his workshop in the cheapest part of Babel.