Caleb Arcadius

Caleb Arcadius is a vampire under the hire of Count Otto Von Stettan. Caleb used to be a bounty hunter that lived in the late 1800's. He worked along the border of America, primarily in Texas and Mexico, and for a a brief time in California. After attributing to unwanted attention to his own particular vampire family of Chupacabras he was assassinated and slain by a fellow Chupacabra, a vampire named Stettan Wringer. Now he works in the underworld as Otto Von Stettan's Man at Arms.

## Life

Caleb was born in the late spring of 1867 in a small shack within the region of Val Verde, Texas. His childhood is unclear but his mother did die upon birth and his father resented him as a child, hence the diminutive name of Caleb or "dog". A name he had come to endear later in his life. His father struggled, owning a small Sharecrop to a much richer estate. After his failure to grow enough crops in the year of 1881, the land owner burned the shack down with Caleb and his father still inside. Caleb was able to escape due to his small size. His father begged Caleb for help within the shed but Caleb did not answer, and his father suffocated and passed away.

At the age of 13, Caleb set out into the world on his own terms. Using the .357 rifle his father had owned he took out into the world as a two-bit thief and a lowly bandit who would rob caravans and settlers moving between Texas and Mexico. He had a sharp run in with the law, which resulted in a small holdout on a Texas hilltop. It resulted in Caleb killing two lawmen and being wounded himself. He realized then that working on behalf of the law was probably a better course of action for himself. When he was 15 he decided to partake in taking on the role as bounty hunter.

His new found job was incredibly lucrative, as Caleb was unique in that unlike other bounty hunters Caleb had the language skills that allowed him to pursue American bounties that had fled into Mexico. Caleb began to accrue a small amount of notoriety in his ability to relentlessly pursue criminals to the ends of the world. He began to chase higher and higher bounties, until when he was 18 he began to hunt for a notably high bounty bandit. A woman named Yulva Tarn.

The chase lasted 4 months and went west across the Mexican border and into the territory that would become California. Upon tracking down Yulva to a small cave in the forests of California, Yulva ambushed Caleb and took him hostage. From there Yulva had told Caleb that she was in fact a vampire, belonging to a small but widely spread network or "family" of vampires called the Chupacabras. In order to bind him to secrecy, Yulva sired Caleb and endowed him with vampiric blood. Making Caleb a vampire.

Caleb and Yulva started a short affair, but ended when Caleb decided to go back to county hunting and Yulva was reluctant to follow. The two remained friends but contact between them got more and more tiring as their lifestyles drifted. Caleb continued to hunt down several other bounties before series complications between the Chupacabras and Caleb began to arise. For starters, Caleb began to use his targets as victims for his appetite for blood. His growing fame and recognition, coupled by the fact all of his targets were being killed by his own vampire behaviors, gave him the nickname of "The Mosquito" to locals and threatened to upturn the secrecy of the vampire sect. The second issue was Caleb began a serious campaign in targeting other Chupacabras after he discovered several disturbing practices and actions being taken by the organization. Another Chupacabra, an assassin named Stettan Wringer was dispatched after Caleb had killed several other Chupacabras and killed Caleb.

Caleb died at the age of 25, in 1892, when Wringer forced a priest to sanctify an entire river, making the entire body of water into holy water, while Caleb had been bathing in it downstream. Caleb had drowned and died in the river when the water burned off much of his extremities and he ultimately drowned.

## Life After Death

Caleb was taken into Babylon post-mortem. He was told there that he had been killed somehow and was now residing in the underworld. It took Caleb a while to come to terms with this, and meanwhile while this was happening Yulva had begun a "civil war" of sorts in the Chupacabra gang. Once she discovered what Caleb had known about Chupacabra activities, and then uncovered that the Chupacabras had killed Caleb, she and a few other loyal followers began an inward power struggle between herself and the greater heads of the gang, such as Wringer.

Caleb needed time to mentally recover from this grievous news. Angered by his circumstances and the men that had put him there, he vowed to devote his other-worldly life to come back to the land of the living and wreak vengeance on Wringer and the gang he had once taken part in. Unfortunately travelling back to the land of life is no easy task. In fact, as far as anyone in hell knows, there is no way for the undead to get out of hell and vice versa.

So, for now, Caleb was employed under Otto's payroll as a Man of Arms and as captain of his estate guard. Officially, his duties are to protect Otto and his family/friends from imminent or long term threats. However outside of his duties Caleb searches extensively for a way out of Hellas and back into the modern world. The appearance of the Orphans, living beings within Hellas, has greatly interested him as he seeks to follow the Orphans in hope that he can follow them out of Hellas and back into the living world.

## Powers

**Vampirism** = Caleb has been gifted vampiric blood, and therefore has the abilities and traits of someone who is vampiric. This entails a higher degree of strength as well as a much higher resistance to conventional damage but in tandem a much lower resistance to unconventional, holy attacks such as the use of holy water or catholic relics. These powers are usually strengthened upon the consumption of human blood, as well as animal blood to a smaller degree.

**Tracking** = Caleb additionally to his vampirism also has a supernatural ability to track and locate individuals based off of little evidence. Caleb can locate people even across dimensions, worlds and continents with limited information. Additionally it also means that individuals in hiding or sneaking up on Caleb rarely can get close without him sensing them. Caleb does not know he has this power, due to the nature of his work. He believes this aural power is actually just a trained, human skill.

## Equipment

***Hostis Humani Generis*** = Caleb's rifle, also called H.H.G, which is a unique magical weapon that was given to him by Otto after exemplary service. The rifle resembles a lever action shotgun but has been *extensively* enchanted and modified to the point of being almost completely an aural weapon, using the souls of several dragons that regularly patrol the skies of Babylon. The H.H.G. switches between four different firing modes.

   **Dragon's Breath** - The most frequently used form, this firing mode causes the H.H.G. to fire shotgun shells endowed with literal dragon's breath. The effect is a large spread of bright orange greek fire that burns anything it touches and is extremely hard to put out. This, along with the Ice Kiss mode, serve as the weapon's medium range alternative.

**Ice Kiss** - The second medium range firing mode, the H.H.G. in this selection will fire a blast of cryogenic fluid and notably does not use a shotgun shell in tandem. This mode is also used as a medium ranged, non-lethal alternative to the Dragon's Breath for capturing targets without killing them.

**Acid Punch** - The close range option the H.H.G. can use, this firemode is used for either extremely close quarters due to it's small range and extremely lethal effect, but is more often used as a "breaching shotgun" for dissolving locked doors and even walls to navigate the battlefield swiftly and enter barred areas.

**Thunder** **Thump** - This is the long range option for the H.H.G. and requires the most energy/resources to use, as it struggles to maintain the same amount of power over such long distances. This mode fires a 12 gauge slug using charged electrons, hence electrifying the slug upon firing and carrying it a much longer distance at a much faster rate. Not only is there a large margin for missed rounds (lightning likely jumps from the slug onto the target if the slug passes close enough to them) but also the electrical characteristic of the slug causes higher damage to armored targets as either most metal and composite armor is conductive and does not protect against lightning, or in the case of powered armor, overcharges it.

However despite the devastating implications, Thunder Thump is rarely used. Mostly because it has a huge recoil, and also requires several minutes to charge back up and use. Therefore it's only used usually against boss characters.

***Cara del Cazador*** = A mask that Caleb uses that resembles a dog or coyote, fashioned over his years in Hellas. The mask serves several crucial purposes to Caleb that make it indispensable for his line of work.

One of the vital resources this mask offers is the obvious lack of recognition. The mask offers a small degree of incognito and discretion. Aside from this the mask also serves as a useful barrier between toxins and himself, as the mask is equipped with several filters that block most known pathogens in the world as well as keeping himself from inhaling the acid his own H.H.G. uses in it's Acid Punch form.

Additionally however, and perhaps more importantly, the mask collects minute, loose molecules of blood around Hellas from nearby sources such as the bloody coliseum and disperses it directly into Caleb's filter. This gives Caleb a constant, steady supply of a cocktail of different types of blood (demon, human, even animal) and puts Caleb in a "battle ready", drugged state. Causing him to act and become more aggressive and violent in his pursuits. Similar to how Kong's helmet also changes his mood.

***Bloodsuckers*** - A novelty of Caleb, they're exactly what they sound like. Small candies resembling lollipop's or suckers that are actually made from congealed blood. A handy snack for any vampire that Caleb seemingly has a large, homemade supply of. It's rare to see Caleb not have one of these in his mouth.