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I am Jumper Across the Rooves of the Jungle from the Isle of the Shimmering Shores. Bit of a mouthful. Jumper Across Rooves is fine. Jumper will do in a pinch. Not Jumpy. I am the Bowmancer Extraordinaire, you've heard of me.
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— Himself
A wandering adventurer far from his tropical island home, Jumper is of a beastman felinoid race called Tabaxi who has ventured forth into a wider world to sate his curiosity and desire for adventure and new experiences all while purportedly on the trail of a mysterious figure from his clan's past. An Arcane Archer by trade, Jumper blends magic and bowmanship together when heroics are called for and trades on stories and songs of his people when questing is lean and his purse is light.
Personality
Jumper is a wanderer at heart, always seeking what's over the next horizon, or what's lurking in the next dungeon. Curiosity drives his need to keep moving, seeing and exploring. Boredom is his bane and Jumper tries to fill his life with adventure and excitement. He lives boldly, confident in his skills, talent, and fame, never worrying about getting in over his head as he's quite certain that whatever happens, he's sure to be able to win the day through the power of Bowmancery. He's a collector of stories and lore, not to horde them away in the nooks and crannies of his mind, but to share and pass that knowledge to others that they may know each other all the better. Growing up on stories of the heroic feats of the Legendary Bowlord, Jumper strives to follow the example of his Half-Elven ancestor, helping those in need, dealing with wandering monsters, clearing out long forgotten dungeons, rescuing those in distress, all while fulfilling own desires for adventure and exploration, and hopefully getting some reward in the process.
Background
A brief history of the Tabaxi, The Legendary Bowlord, and Jumper
Jumper Across Rooves of the Jungle comes from the Isle of the Shimmer Shores, an isolated jungle paradise that few have seen or visited and fewer still have even heard about. It is primarily inhabited by a felinoid species of Beastmen called Tabaxi, of which Jumper is one, and the Tabaxi people of this island have little contact or interaction with the outside world. A Tabaxi away from their island is a truly rare sight.
Once upon a time, so far distant in the past that it has nearly been relegated to myth, that island was visited by a mysterious Half-Elven wanderer from afar whose name is nearly forgotten by all by the most ardent students of Tabaxi history. Jarikith Rivinson, Legendary Bowlord.Stranded for a time upon that isle, he taught the Tabaxi people much of the ways of his people, greatly advancing their technology and culture, introduced them to the art of magic and archery blended together known as Bowmancery, and became exceptionally.. close to some members of the tribe, resulting in a subset of Tabaxi who are possessed of Elven ancestry. Jumper is a member of that subset, tracing his lineage in a direct line back to the Legendary Bowlord.
Fueled by stories of the Legendary Bowlord's adventures and his own insatiable curiosity, Jumper, an accomplished Bowmancer in his own right, set forth from his island home to explore the greater world beyond the Shimmering Shores, becoming an itinerant adventurer and hero. He makes his way through adventuring and questing, through trading the tales of his people in song and stories, roving from place to place to fulfill his need for new experiences and new adventures, all while trying to follow in the footsteps of the Legendary Bowlord in the hopes that one day their paths might cross.
SKILLS
Acrobatics - Expert Level
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As his full name of Jumper Across Rooves of the Jungle might imply, Jumper was more at home in the canopy of his tropical homeland than on the ground. There among the high branches and and swaying treetops he learned to travel the highways of the jungles, leaping, flipping, swinging from tree to tree with the ease of a highly skilled circus performer upon a trapeze.
Jumper's training in the art of Arcane Archery, covered not just the use of the bow, but also generalized knowledge of the mystical arts as part of the process of learning to harness and hone his gift to be channeled through his weapon. Never the best student of the more esoteric side of this training, Jumper none the less has enough grounding in the arcane to recognize magic when he sees it in use, can sometimes spot the more subtle effects of it, may be able to identify the sort of spell or magical effect being cast or generated in pinch, and has some knowledge of arcane creatures, monsters, and items that inhabit the world at large.
While competent in the use of most forms of weaponry, where Jumper's true talents in combat comes forth when he has a bow in his hands and arrows ready to fly. Able to fire swiftly and accurately over long distances, making shots others might find challenging at best with a swift deftness and keen eye of a truly gifted bowman.
Arms Proficiency - Competent Level
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A fighter by trade, Jumper has received training in the usage of a wide variety of simple and martial weapons and various types and weights of armor, making him a generally adept, though not exceptional warrior on the field of battle.
Given the time and resources to do so, Jumper is fully capable of crafting bow from scratch at a level of quality that wouldn't be out of place in most weapons markets. Though not of master craftsmanship level, the products of his crafting are simple, servicable, and reliable in the field, with excellent performance, accuracy, and appropriate drawstrength in skilled hands.
Tabaxi are natural born climbers with built in aids in the form of their retractable claws, Jumper is no exception to this. As one might expect given his penchant for traveling across the treetops of his homeland more often than the pathways of the ground below, Jumper particularly excels when it comes to climbing, able to scurry upwards to lofty heights around him as quickly as one more landbound might run a similar distance across the ground.
Fletcher - Competent Level
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Jumper is skilled in the art of crafting arrows from available resources, given the proper time to do so. He's able to create ammunition for himself that will fly straight and true from his bow when there might not be any shops around for a quick arrow run in the even he starts to run low on the precious little flying wooden deathspikes.
Jumper's curiosity included the events of the past as well as the goings on of the world around him in the present day. While he's well versed in the deep lore of his own people, their isolation paired with his relatively recent arrival has left him less certain when it comes to specifics in the lands he now roams. Still he's managed to pick up the very broad strokes of the historical overview of the world outside his island homeland, often by swapping tales with others as interested in the past as he, granting him a basic grounding of key events, though sometimes the specifics of those events are colored by faulty or exaggerated information from those with whom he traded stories.
Languages - Competent Level
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In addition to his native tongue of the Tabaxian people, Jumper's study of the texts and teachings left behind by the long ago vistor to his people, have left him fluent in a few other languages. He speaks the Common tongue of man, Elvish, and Draconic with relative ease and skill without regularly bungling what he's trying to convey.
Perception - Expert Level
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Jumper's keen Tabaxian senses and natural curiosity to know all the things, have given him a heightened awareness of his surroundings, enabling him to take note of things that others might miss. A glint of metal through the leaves of a forest, a hushed conversation behind a door, the subtle snap of a twig over the babbling of a nearby brook, Jumper is adept and taking heed of things about him that are simply out of place or otherwise obscured from immediate notice.
Performance - Competent Level
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Though not a professional bard by trade, Jumper's skilled enough with a lute and has a pleasant enough singing voice, that when heroic adventuring is in a lull and his purse has become light he can make his way for a bit by singing the songs of his homeland or those of other people that he's learned in his travels about the world. He tells a good yarn without stumbling over his own words and losing track of the tale being told, letting him pass on news from far quite well or tell boastful stories of his own adventures to those who will hear them. All of this can make him a welcome addition to any tavern hall not boasting its own bard for entertainment of the patrons.
Jumper's well versed in moving silently and skulking about to find positioning for the perfect shot against an unaware target. In his own words, "If your prey knows you're there, you've already turned a hunt into a battle." He's skilled at slipping from shadow to shadow, cover to cover, and being in places no one quite expects while doing so with economy and deftness of someone descended from predatory roots.
While some might find it surprising in a felinoid, Jumper is not your typical water avoiding house cat. Like many of his island bound people Jumper is a skilled swimmer who has regularly dared the often treacherous waters around his homeland and risen up to the challenge of doing so, forging an incredibly adept swimmer where one might not expect to find one.
ABILITIES
Magic: Bowmancery - Enhanced Level
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Jumper is a follower of Bowmancery, a discipline taught to his people long ago that blends mysticism and archery. Through Bowmancery Jumper can channel his innate mage energies and will through his shots to create a myriad of spell like effects on a precisely targeted scale. Jumper is a skilled Bowmancer, well versed in channeling his mage power into a variety of effects, from simply imbuing his arrows with enough mystical energy to overcome resistances some creatures may have to non-magical attacks to create a diverse range of 'spellshots'. Jumper's magically imbued shots might burst with elemental damage in a small radius, charm the hit target or induce a magic slumber, entangle the target in mystic vines or chains, randomly teleport the target a short distance or to a different plane for a very limited time, take a zig-zagging path towards the target when a straight line of travel isn't available, or a variety of other magical effects at his direction. Such effects are limited in scope to the target hit or a small area around the target.
Item: Duskwood Bow - Enhanced Level
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Jumper's longbow is constructed of Duskwood native to his island home. Properly worked and treated, it makes the bow exceptionally durable, as strong as any metal forged blade, and resistant to fire. Though not indestructible, nor innately magical in itself, it will take more than the average effort to truly damage this bow due to its fine craftsmanship and the material used in its construction.
Innate: Natural Weapons - Basic Level
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Tabaxi are equipped with natural weapons in the form of sharp fangs in the mouth and retractable claws in their fingers and toes. Though Jumper may disdain the use of such primitive weaponry in favor of his chosen bow, he's never truly unarmed even without his proper adventuring gear and his claws are excellent aids for swiftly climbing up challenging surfaces.
Magic: Prestidigitation - Basic Level
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Jumper knows a simple cantrip that was taught to him to determine if he had the innate magical spark necessary to begin training as a Bowmancer. This simple spell enables him to create a minor magical effect within 10 yards. Such minor effects include such things as creating an instantaneous and harmless sensory effect, such as a shower of sparks, a puff of wind, faint musical notes, or an odd odor. Instantaneously lighting or snuffing out a candle, a torch, or a small campfire. Instantaneously cleaning or soiling an object no larger than 1 cubic foot. Chilling, warming, or flavoring up to 1 cubic foot of nonliving material for 1 hour. Make a color, small mark, or a symbol appear on an object or a surface for 1 hour. Create a non-magical trinket or an illusory image that can fit in a hand. Similar other minor and limited magical effects are also possible.
Innate: Senses - Enhanced Level
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Jumper's Tabaxi lineage grants him enhanced senses of hearing and smell that outclass those of mundane humans. He is able to pick out and identify others by individual scent among a myriad of others via his keen nose, or listen in on a conversation across a crowded room. Additionally his Tabaxi slit pupiled eyes are able to adjust from seeing in near total darkness with exceptional clarity to operating just as readily in glaring conditions through the dilating and constricting of the pupils.
Item: Sky Ring - Enhanced Level
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Jumper possesses a ring that's been imbued with the essence of a proto-elemental being of air. While wearing the ring Jumper can utilize its magic for a variety of effects.
Elemental Speech: While wearing the ring Jumper can converse with elemental beings in the primordial elemental tongue, though he does so in the dialect particular to air elementals, still communication is possible with all elemental types through this means. The ring only enables communication, it does not force the elemental to listen or obey, does not invoke trust or friendship, only the possibility that such things might be earned through speech.
Air Burst: Jumper can release focused gusts of wind from the ring by speaking the activation word to do so and pointing the ring in the direction that the burst of air should travel. The burst of wind is strong enough to knock a foe off their feet as if taking a powerful punch, to slam open or shut a door, break a window, etc. Jumper's grown skilled in using the Air Burst in mid jump or flip to propel himself farther and faster across distances not possible with a standard leap or using it just before impact to slow his falls into safe landing via a downward directed burst.
Jolting Bolt: By speaking a command word, Jumper can charge the air, either directly around the ring itself, or in a path of travel between the ring and a target, in the former case when the charged ring is brought into physical contact with another it releases a stunning jolt of electricity directly into the contacted individual, in the latter the ring releases a bolt of electricity streaking through the air towards the target for the same effect, in both cases, it's similar to being hit with a powerful taser shock.
Item: Tortle Belt - Enhanced Level
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Jumper bears a magical belt about his waist decorated prominently with palm-sized turtle shell plates at the buckle and spaced at intervals around length. While wearing the belt Jumper gains aspects of the beastman race known in his land as Tortles.
Natural Armoring: While wearing the Tortle Belt, Jumper is imbued with a protective armoring that makes him resistant to slashing, piercing, bludgeoning, and force forms of physical damage of both mundane and magical forms. It does not protect from other damage types such as elemental, poisons and toxins, sonic, necrotic, radiant, psychic, and the like.
Shell Defense: With a word of command, Jumper can activate the Tortle Belt's enhanced defense mode, creating a shell of interlocking turtle shell plates that surround him fully and offer greatly superior protection equivalent to what the finest crafted magical full platemail might afford. Though granting exceptional protection, using this Shell Defense ability, essentially cuts Jumper off from the outside world, he cannot attack others from within the shell, he cannot move himself under his own power, he can not perceive anything outside the shell through sight, though sound and aromas can still be discerned. While the shell can protect Jumper from most physical based attacks while activated, it does not block such attacks as gasses or spells and effects that bypass or are otherwise unaffected by physical defenses and barriers.
Underwater Adaptation: While wearing the Tortle Belt, Jumper is able to hold his breath for up to 1 hour at a time.
ADVANTAGES
Jumper's well equipped for travel and heroic adventures, in addition to his Duskwood Bow, Tortle Belt, and Sky Ring, his standard gear includes such things as a backpack, bedroll, rope, rations and water bottles, a mess kit, tinderbox, torches, and various adventuring goods upon his person or readily available. For combat, in addition to his bow, he usually carries two scimitars for up close combat, a javelin and hand axe for emergency throwing weapons and for being generally useful as tools of survival as well. Jumper also has his lute along with him in the event he feels the need to strum out a song or two. Jumper carries a few varieties of arrows for special circumstances in addition to a standard array of damaging arrows (round point, hunting, barbed), he has a stock of blunt tipped ones for delivery spell effects without harming his targets and arrows with a specialized alchemical adhesive head to stick to a target for up to 1 hour, or until the adhesive is neutralized with another alchemical agent that he routinely carries on his person.
Jumper, among some others of his tribe, is a direct descendant of the Half-Elven (Human/Elf) visitor to his homeland with one of the island's native felinoid Beastmen. Though the results of the mixing of Tabaxi genetics with Elven ancestry has faded over time, it remains strong enough in Jumper to mark him as more than Beastman, for he is also part Elven. Jumper ages slower than is typical of others of his tribe lacking this mixed lineage, he will live exceptionally longer (barring accident, misfortune, or violence), he requires less sleep to be considered fully rested (typically four hours of sleep), cannot be forced into mystical slumber against his will, and if a spell, ritual, magical item, or device requires someone of Elven ancestry to operate, participate, wield, or otherwise be around to work properly, then Jumper serves as that requirement.
WEAKNESSES
Jumper's often driven by an impulsive need to learn, discover, explore, and experience new things. It is this insatiable curiosity that prompted the wanderlust taking Jumper from his homeland and out into the wider world. Naturally, this often leads him to looking before he leaps, messing about with things best left alone just to see what will happen, and often getting himself neck deep into all sorts of trouble without any sort of thought for how he'll get himself back out of it.
Jumper's rare genetic heritage, being a mix of Half-Elven (Human/Elf) and Felinoid Beastman has resulted in him being considered all of the above for spells, abilities, and effects that target or operate upon Elves, Man (Humanoids), Beastmen, or, to a lesser extent, simple beasts. For such things targeting Elves, Humanoids, or Beastmen, Jumper is fully vulnerable to their effects, for example a ward protecting an area against Elves entering, will just as readily bar Jumper from passing through. For effects targeting beasts/animals, the effects are lessened, though still present, depending on the overall potency of the magic behind them. For example, a ward against animals would require effort from Jumper to push through, but would not fully bar him from doing so. Similarly, a spell to command beasts might simply make him more open to the caster's suggestions as if charmed rather than being compelled to obey commands. If those spell had an exceptionally skilled caster or a high amount of energy behind them, their effect on Jumper might be closer to full potency and much harder to resist.
Though Bowmancery is a potent form of magic with a variety of applications limited mostly by the Bowmancer's imagination and will, it does require the Bowmancer to be armed with and capable of firing a ranged projectile weapon. Though Bowmancers traditionally use a bow and arrows for this purpose, a sling and stones, crossbow and bolts, or similar ranged weapon with a physical projectile for ammo will also work as it's not the specific shape of weaponry and ammo, but rather the weapon and aiming of it serving to focus the Bowmancer's will and magic and the projectile working as the channel of delivery that is needed. A Bowmancer without such a weapon is without the power of their magic; a thrown or stabbed arrow, a hurled rock, even a tossed dagger or spear will not serve as a proper channel, nor will a ranged weapon without the proper ammo, and no amount of finger waving, nonsensical words, or strange components on its own will invoke Bowmancery.
