Hellknight

Shengo Arashi's page

13 posts. Organized Play character for Degnax 1e.


Race

Vitals:
HP: 102/102 | AC: 26 T: 18 FF: 19 | Perception +11, Darkvision 60 ft.| Initiative: +15 | Fort +17 Ref +18 Will +16 | CMB: +15 , CMD: 33 | Speed: 30

Classes/Levels

Skills:
Acrobatics +7 | Bluff +13 | Climb +12 | Diplomacy +15 | Escape Artist +2 | Handle Animal +7 | Heal +1 | Intimidate +43/40 | Linguistics +1 | Ride +2 | Stealth +7 | Survival +13 | Swim +12

Gender

Male Human Antipaladin/Rogue/Fighter

About Shengo Arashi

Shengo Arashi

Alignment: N/A (Beyond Morality)

Size: Large

Deity: Hei Feng (CN)

Age: 164

Race: Human:

Human (tian)

Skilled
Bonus Feat
Ability score +2: Strength

Class: Slayer 6 / Anti-Paladin 3, Fighter (Armor Master) 3

Initiative: 15 (6cha+6Mythic+3Competence)
Senses: Perception: +11

Languages: Common, Ignan, Tian

Defense:

AC: 26 = 10+6 (armor)+7(Cha)+1(Shield)+1(Deflection)+2(NA)-1(size)

Touch: 18

Flat: 19

HP: 102 = 60 (class) + 18 (con) + 24 (mythic)

Fort: 17 = 5 (Base)+ 3 (Con)+ 7 (Cha) + 1 (Luck)+ 1(abp)

Ref: 18 = 5 (Base)+ 2 (Dex)+ 7 (Cha)+ 2 (AT)+ 1 (Luck)+ 1 (abp)

Will: 16 = 4 (Base)+ 1 (Wis)+ 7 (Cha)+ 2 (AT)+ 1 (Luck)+ 1(abp)

CMD: 33 = 10 (Base)+ 6 (BAB)+ 7 (Cha)+ 8 (Str)+ 1 (Size)+ 1 (Deflection)

Armor: Dastardly Mithril Agile Breastplate of Mind Buttressing:
AC 6, Max Dex: 7, Penalty: 0, Arcane Failure: 15% W: 12lbs
Cost: 800+4000+9000=13800

Shield: Adamantine Keen Conductive Klar of Spell Resistance:
AC: 1, SR:13, Penalty: 0, Arcane Failure: 5%, W: 6lbs
Cost: 24+3000+4000+8000=15024

Face of True Fear: When an opponent targets you with a melee or ranged attack within 30 ft., you can spend an immediate action to make an Intimidate check. You can use the result as your AC or as your touch AC — as you desire — against that attack.
If your final check result is lower than your normal AC, you may default to your normal AC and ignore the roll. You must be aware of the attack in question to use this ability and may not be flat-footed to that attacker; this is a mind-affecting fear affect and your attacker must be able to see you clearly. Because this is an immediate action, you may only use this ability to defend against a single attack each round.

Deflective Shield: He gains a +1 bonus to his touch AC, and this bonus increases for every four levels beyond 2nd (to a maximum of +6 at 20th level); however, this bonus cannot exceed the sum of the armor and enhancement bonus to AC provided by the shield that the armor master is currently carrying.

Cynical Ear: Add 2 when determining your Hit Dice for Intimidate checks, and increase the DC or all Diplomacy checks against you by 2.

Lion’s Cloak: A creature wearing the cloak gains a +2 resistance bonus on saving throws made against mind-affecting and fear effects.

Offense:

Speed: 30

Reach: 10Ft.

Weapons:
Main Hand: Shocking Adamantine Cruel Earth Breaker:
DMG: 3d6+8 + 1d6 Elec | To Hit: +12/+7 | Crit: x3 | B
Cost: 80+3000+8000=11080

Adamantine Keen Conductive Klar of Spell Resistance:
DMG:1d8+8 | To Hit: +9/+5 | Crit: 19-20/x2 | S
Cost: (see defense)

CMB: 15 = 6(bab)+8(Str)+1(size)

Sneak attack: 2d6

Studied target: +1 (+2 lenses / +3 focused)

Horifying Visage: By expending one daily use of your touch of corruption as a standard action, you may attempt to permanently blind one sentient creature within 30 ft. as per the blinding beauty supernatural ability of a nymph. A successful Fortitude save (DC: 10 + 1/2 your antipaladin level + your Charisma modifier) Negates this effect. This is a mind-affecting fear affect and your attacker must be able to see you clearly.
Once used, this ability remains in effect until the beginning of your next turn and functions as a gaze attack with a radius of 30 ft.

Boots of Speed: Haste 10/day

Long arm Bracers: Three times per day, as a swift action, the wearer can stretch her arms beyond their limits, increasing her reach by 5 feet until the start of her next turn. Her weapon attack rolls take a —4 penalty, while unarmed strikes and natural weapons using the arms take no penalty.

Lion’s Cloak: Once per day, the wearer can pull the hood over her head, assuming the form of a lion (as the beast shape II spell, except that it allows only lion form) for up to 10 minutes. If the wearer has the smite class feature, she can use this power more than once per day by expending uses of her smite; at most she can take the lion form as many times as she has smites plus one additional time. While in this lion form the wearer cannot use its normal smite ability.

Studied Target Bonuses:

Base: A slayer can study an opponent he can see as a move action. The slayer then gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against that opponent, and a +1 bonus on weapon attack and damage rolls against it. The DCs of slayer class abilities against that opponent increase by 1. A slayer can only maintain these bonuses against one opponent at a time; these bonuses remain in effect until either the opponent is dead or the slayer studies a new target.
If a slayer deals sneak attack damage to a target, he can study that target as an immediate action, allowing him to apply his studied target bonuses against that target (including to the normal weapon damage roll)

Focused Target: When you study a target, you can reduce the number of additional targets you can maintain as a studied target. For each target reduced in this way, you increase your studied target bonus by 1 for either attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, or the DCs of your abilities. Each such increase must be applied to a different category (attack rolls, damage rolls, skill checks, or DCs). You can end the effects of this feat as a free action.

Bloodstained Gloves: The original color of these supple, calfskin gloves is obfuscated by layers of brown bloodstains that persist through any amount of cleaning. If the gloves are soaked in the blood of a recently killed creature, the wearer gains a +1 insight bonus on attack rolls and damage rolls against creatures of the same type (or subtype for humanoids or outsiders, per the ranger’s favored enemy class feature) for 1 hour. If the gloves are worn by a slayer, the bonus on damage rolls is equal the slayer’s studied target bonus. Creatures that lack blood, such as skeletons, golems, or clockwork creatures, cannot activate the gloves’ ability.

Lenses of the Predators Gaze: These amber lenses are shaped to look like the eyes of a cat. As a standard action, the wearer can use these lenses to target a single creature that he can see. When he does, as long as the target is not already the subject of the wearer’s studied target class feature, the wearer gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks against that creature, along with a +1 bonus on weapon attack rolls and damage rolls against it as if he had the studied target class feature. If the wearer has the studied target class feature, he can instead use the magic of these lenses as a free action when designating the subject of his studied target to increase his effective slayer level by 5 for the purposes of the studied target class feature. The wearer can gain these effects for up to 10 rounds per day, but the rounds don’t need to be consecutive.

Stats:

Str: 26 | +8 = 14 (base) + 1 (level) + 2 (Race) + 4 (Mythic) + 2 (mythic path) + 1 (Inherent) + 2 (size)
Dex: 15 | +2 = 17 (base) - 2 (size)
Con: 16 | +3 = 11 (base + 1 (inherent) + 4 (Enhancement)
Int: 13 | +1 = 10 (base) +3 (age)
Wis: 13 | +1 = 10 (base) + 3 (age)
Cha: 24 | +7 = 17 (base) + 2 (mythic) + 2 (mythic path) + 3 (age)

Feats and Traits:

Traits:
Charming Smile, Cunning Soul (exemplar)
Adopted (social): ifrit
Fiery Glare (race)
Memorable (social)
Cynical ear (social)
Seeker (social)

Normal Feats:
1. Weapon Focus: Klar
1. Noble Scion of War (human bonus)
1. Skill Focus: Survival
2. Touch of Fate: Nature: Natures Wisper
2. Two-Weapon Fighting (slayer talent)
2. Focused Target
3. Double Slice
3. Intimidating Prowess
3. Face of True Fear (Cruel)
4. Skill Focus: Intimidate
4. Hurtful
4. Dazzling Display (fighter bonus)
4. Weapon Focus: Earth Breaker (slayer talent)
5. Thunder and Fang (fighter bonus)
5. Racial Heritage: Weretiger
5. Horrifying Visage (cruel)
6. Improved Two-weapon Fighting (slayer talent)
6. Shatter Defenses
6. Violent Display

Mythic Feats:
1. Mythic Shatter Defenses
3. Mythic Intimidating Prowess
5. Extra Mythic Path Ability

Class Features: Slayer:

1. Track
Studied target: +1

2. Slayer Talent: Ranger Combat Style
Two-Weapon Combat Style: Two-Weapon Fighting

3. Sneak attack: 1d6

4. Slayer Talent: Unchained Rogue Talent
Unchained Rogue Talent: Weapon Training

5. Studied Target: +2

6. Slayer talent: Ranger Combat Style
Slayer Talent: Rogue Talent
Rogue Talent: Mien of Despair
Two-Weapon Combat Style: Improved Two-Weapon Fighting
Sneak Attack: +2d6

Anti-Paladin Class Abilities:

1. Smite Good
Code of Conduct
Detect Good
Aura of Evil

2. Touch of Corruption: 8/Day
Unholy Resiliance

3. Cruelty: Cruel Feat: Face of True Fear
Plague Bringer
Aura of Cowardice

Anti-paladin Code:

Antipaladins of Hei Feng are self-sufficient wanderers who roam the land, offering great aid or—more commonly—great destruction at their own whims. They are rarely deceptive about their intentions, and desperate people can ask them for help, knowing that these antipaladins will keep their word if they agree to offer assistance. Any slight, however, will be met with overwhelming retribution. The code of Hei Feng’s antipaladins contains the following adages.
• The blessing of the storm comes in lightning. I am permitted to offer sincerely altruistic aid, so long as that aid comes in the form of violence visited upon others.
• The clouds warn of coming rain. My wrath may be sudden, but it is honest. I may trick a foe with boasts or cunning, but I do not pretend to be a friend to those I intend to harm. Such sycophancy is cowardice.
• The wind cannot be chained. I stay nowhere for long, and I do not abide oaths that try to restrain me for longer than a month. If I make such promises, they have no weight, and those who trust them are fools.
• My last word is a thunderclap. None shall insult me, or my god, without paying a terrible price. My revenge will be unstoppable and absolute.

Personal Code:
• The storm cleanses through ruin.
• Promises bind only until the wind shifts.
• Mercy is the pause between thunderclaps.
• Insult me or my god, and your name becomes thunder’s echo.

Fighter:

1. Bonus Feat: Dazzling Display

2. Bonus Feat: Thunder and Fang
Deflective Shield

3. Armor Training: +1

Mythic Tier Abilities:

Trickster Path

1. Longevity
Hard To Kill
Mythic power: 23
Surge 1d6
Mythic Feat

2. Mythic Sneak Attack
Amazing Initiative
+2 Ability Score: Str

3. Beyond Morality
Recuperation
Mythic Feat

4. Enhance Ability: Str
Surge 1d8
+2 Ability Score: Cha

5. Enhanced Ability: Cha
Mythic Saves
Mythic Feat
Mythic Armor Training

6. Bloody Streak
Force of Will
+2 Ability Score: Str

Skills:

*Acrobatics: 7 = 2Ranks + 2Stat + 3CS
*Bluff: 13 = 0Ranks + 7Stat + 3Trait + 3Competence
*Climb: 12 = 1Ranks + 8Stat + 3CS
*Craft: 1 = 0Ranks + 1Stat
*Diplomacy: 15 = 0ranks + 7Stat + 3Trait + 5Competence
*Disguise: 7 = 0Ranks + 7Stat
Fly: 0 = 0Ranks + 2Stat - 2Size
*Handle Animal: 7 = 0Ranks + 7Stat
*Heal: 1 = 0Ranks + 1Stat
*Intimidate: 37 = 6Ranks + 15Stat + 3CS + 3Trait + 3Feat + 3Competence + 2Circumstance + 2AT
*Knowledge Dungeoneering: 10 = 6Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS
*Knowledge Engineering: 1 = 0Ranks + 1Stat
*Knowledge Geography: 1 = 0Ranks + 1Stat
*Knowledge Local: 5 = 1Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS
*Knowledge Nobility: 7 = 1Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS + 3Feat
*Knowledge Religion: 10 = 6Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS
*Perception: 11 = 6Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS + 1Trait
*Profession: 1 = 0Ranks + 1Stat
*Ride: 2 = 0Ranks + 2Stat
*Sense Motive: 14 = 5Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS + 3Trait + 2AT
*Spell Craft: 1 = 0Ranks + 1Stat
*Stealth: 7 = 6Ranks + 2Stat + 3CS - 4size
*Survival: 13 = 6Ranks + 1Stat + 3CS + 3Trait
*Swim: 12 = 1Ranks + 8Stat + 3CS
Use Magic Device: 8 = 1Ranks + 7Stat

Mythic Intimidating prowess: Intimidate +6 vs non mythic / +3 vs mythic

Studied target: A slayer can study an opponent he can see as a move action. The slayer then gains a +1 bonus on Bluff, Knowledge, Perception, Sense Motive, and Survival checks attempted against that opponent (+2 with lenses, +3 focused target)

Track: +3 survival to follow tracks

Size: +4 intimidate to creatures that are medium or smaller

Intimidate / Demoralize Effects:

Intimidate +43 (base); fear, mind-affecting.

Fiery Glare: May Take 10 on Intimidate checks, even in combat.

Size Advantage: +4 vs Medium or smaller creatures (Large size).

Auto Result: 53 (base) / 57 vs Medium or smaller (non-mythic); 50 / 54 vs mythic.

Demoralize: Standard → 1 foe ≤ 30 ft (DC 10 + HD + Wis); Shaken 1 rd + 1 per 5 over DC × 1.5 (Memorable).
On Success:

• Hurtful — Make one melee attack as a swift action.

• Mien of Despair — Target loses morale bonuses for 1d4 + 1 rds.

• Cruel weapon — On hit vs shaken/frightened/panicked: target sickened 1 rd; on kill/KO: gain 5 temp HP (10 min).

• Shatter Defenses — Target flat-footed to your attacks until end of next turn.

• Mythic Shatter Defenses — Upgrades above: Target is flat-footed to all attacks (not just yours)

• Violent Display — On confirmed crit or sneak attack, may use Dazzling Display as an immediate action (mass demoralize).

• Dazzling Display — As a full-round (or triggered) action, make one Intimidate check to demoralize all foes within 30 ft.

Aura of Cowardice (20 ft): Enemies –4 vs fear, lose immunity to fear.

Face of True Fear: Immediate → use Intimidate check result as AC / Touch AC vs 1 visible attack (30 ft).

Common Debuff Stack: Shaken (–2) + Sickened (–2) = –4 atk / saves / skills / checks; target flat-footed; –4 vs fear; loses morale bonuses.

Effective Totals:
• +43 base Intimidate
• +47 vs Medium or smaller (size bonus)
• Take 10 enabled (Fiery Glare) → 53 / 57 non-mythic, 50 / 54 mythic.
• Mass Demoralize available via Dazzling Display or Violent Display.
• Flat-footed to all after successful demoralize (Mythic Shatter Defenses).

Magic Items:

Head - Circlet of Persuasion | 4500gp

Headband - Headband of Fortune’s Favor | 7700gp

Eyes - Lenses of the Preator’s Gaze | 8000gp

Neck - Amulet of NA +2 | 8000gp

Shoulders - Lion Cloak | 12000gp

Chest - Sash of the War Champion | 4000gp

Body - Living Garment | 5000gp

Belt - Belt of Mighty Constitution | 16000gp

Wrist - Longarm Bracers | 7200gp

Hands - Bloodstained Glove | 8000gp

Ring 1 - ring of freedom of movement | 40000gp

Ring 2 - Ring of Sustenance | 2500gp

Feet - Boots of speed | 12000gp

Slotless - Manual of Gainful Exercise +1 | 27500gp
Manual of Bodily Health +1 | 27500gp
Bag of holding II | 5000gp
Wand of Cure light wounds | 750gp
Wand of infernal Healing | 750gp
X4 Potion of cure moderate wounds | 1200gp
X2 Potion of cure serious wounds | 1500gp

Spells:
Permanent Darkvision | 6750gp
(Diamond dust 5000gp + 500gp 10lvl darkvision scroll + 1250gp 10lvl permanency)

Permanent Enlarge Person | 3850gp
(Diamond dust 2500gp + 225gp 9lvl enlarge person scroll + 1125gp 9lvl permanency)

Mundane Equipment:

Bedroll 2sp
Medium tent 15gp
60x Rations 6gp
28x Waterskin 112gp
Mess kit 4sp
Hemp rope 250ft 5gp
Mirror 10gp
Compass 10gp
Blanket 1gp
10x Soap 1sp
10x Chalk 1sp
Flint & Steel 1gp
10x Earplugs 6sp
100x Fuel pellet 3gp
10x oil 1gp
Grappling hook 1gp
5x Caltrops 5gp
5x Bells 5gp
Sling
Skeleton key 85gp
Shovel 4gp
2x Alchemist’s Fire 40gp

Money: 108gp 7sp

10-minute Backstory:

Step 1 – Key Background & Concept Elements

The Typhoon’s Orphan
Shengo was born into a minor Tian noble house during a night when the heavens split apart. A typhoon tore through the coast, drowning his family’s keep and washing the infant to shore amid wreckage and corpses. The servants who found him swore the lightning curved away from his cradle. When the storm ended, his house was gone—and so was its heir.

Adopted by the Flame-Born
The boy was discovered by wandering ifrit ascetics devoted to Hei Feng, the Duke of Thunder. They saw omen rather than tragedy and raised him as one of their own. Under their care he learned to temper flame and storm alike, to treat destruction as revelation. Their laughter in the face of chaos became his faith’s first hymn.

Trial of Ruin
In his coming-of-age duel, Shengo struck down the very master who had trained him. Lightning answered the act, searing his flesh and ending his mortality without killing him. When the smoke cleared, he had grown—taller, broader, terrible to behold. The magic that struck him fixed his body forever in that moment of fury, leaving him a giant among men.

The Face in the Storm
The scars left by that night never healed; instead, he carved new ones over them. Each mark was a prayer to the storm and a denial of weakness. His visage became a ruin of burned flesh and ritual scoring—a living warning. Those who meet his eyes often falter before they swing; it is said his glare can still the hand of even the fearless.

Voice of Charm and Scorn
For all his monstrous appearance, Shengo’s words can sway a crowd as easily as his hammer shatters stone. He learned early how to read hearts, to see where greed and faith overlap, and to speak to both. He smiles when he lies and laughs when threatened, a performer who understands that terror and charisma are siblings.

The Storm’s Creed
Hei Feng’s doctrine is simple: the storm destroys, therefore it renews.
Shengo lives that truth without hesitation. His strength and his voice make fear a form of worship, each foe’s surrender a hymn to the tempest. In time, he forged his own verses to the faith—a creed whispered between thunderclaps and carved into the scars that cross his flesh.

The Storm-Saint’s Code
• The storm cleanses through ruin.
• Promises bind only until the wind shifts.
• Mercy is the pause between thunderclaps.
• Insult me or my god, and your name becomes thunder’s echo.

Beyond Morality
Decades have passed since the lightning spared him, yet his face shows none of it. Immortality has stripped away his belief in good or evil, leaving only consequence. To Shengo, morality is weather—fleeting, ever-changing, and ultimately meaningless.

The Sigil Sojourn
Planar wandering eventually brought him to Sigil, the City of Doors, whose laws even gods obey. There he found the perfect storm: endless tempests of ideology and belief with no master to command them. He sells his might and his fear to those who think they can leash a hurricane, then laughs when they learn otherwise.

Appearance
Towering over eight feet, Shengo’s frame is all sinew and bronze. Lightning-white scars trace his arms and chest; faint stripes shimmer across his shoulders when light bends just so. His eyes glow molten gold beneath black hair streaked with silver. His armor hums softly, the air around him heavy with the scent of rain and ozone.

Presence
In battle he moves with measured calm, exhaling once before the killing begins. That breath—half sigh, half hiss—is the only warning his enemies receive. When the storm breaks, his laughter follows.

Step 2 – Goals

Character Goal – The Grand Design:
Shengo seeks the Eye of the Tempest—the fabled point where every storm across every plane converges. There he hopes to witness destruction and creation as one, proving himself the truest embodiment of Hei Feng’s power.

Player Goal:
I’d like to see Shengo ultimately confront Hei Feng—or a divine echo of him—and decide whether to remain the god’s instrument or claim his own freedom. Along the way, he should face moments that test whether a creature born for ruin can still forge genuine bonds.

Step 3 – Secrets

Known Secret:
The night he slew his teacher still haunts him. He claims it was obedience to divine will, but sometimes he wonders if the silence that followed was approval—or abandonment.

Unknown Secret:
The lightning that granted his immortality carried a fragment of an older, primal storm, one that existed before the gods. It slumbers within him, waiting.

Step 4 – Allies & Enemies

Lian Zephyrfire (Friendly): Ifrit priestess and former companion who still calls him brother. She preaches rebirth through ruin and fears the day his faith forgets the first half of that phrase.

Korin “Iron Raft” Tasuda (Friendly): Planar smuggler who arranges his mercenary work in Sigil. Practical and fearless—she treats him like a living natural disaster to be scheduled, not worshiped.

Abbot Chou Jin-Ren (Hostile): Once a monk of Hei Feng, now sworn to the machinery of Mechanus. He believes Shengo’s existence proves chaos must be caged.

Storm-Lord Takai (Nemesis): A half-celestial zealot who claims Hei Feng’s true favor and calls Shengo a heretic. Their clashes leave skies split and oceans trembling.

Step 5 – Memories, Mannerisms & Quirks

Memory:
The instant of his awakening—lightning halting his heart and restarting it in laughter. Every thunderclap since reminds him that he is still part of that sound.

Mannerism:
Before he strikes, he exhales slowly through his nose, the hiss of metal on metal. Those who know him understand that silence means the storm has already begun.

Quirk:
He cannot walk past still water. Every pool, every basin, he stirs into motion; he says stillness invites death.

Narrative Backstory:

Shengo Arashi entered the world on a night when the heavens split apart, the typhoon that tore across the Tian coast did not simply destroy his family’s manor, it erased it… walls, gardens, keep, servants, nobility, all swept into the ravenous dark. When the storm finally relented, only an infant remained, carried to shore in a cradle of debris and foam. Those few survivors who found him swore the lightning curved away from his tiny form, refusing to strike him, and by dawn his noble house was nothing but rumor, its last heir a nameless child in a ruined world.

He was not nameless for long, for wandering ifrit ascetics found the boy at the water’s edge, and in him they saw omen rather than tragedy. They followed Hei Feng, the Duke of Thunder, believing any child spared by a storm must be destined for one, and so they took him in as their own. From them he learned that destruction could be revelation, that laughter can outlive lightning, that the world is clearest in the moments it breaks, and their wild joy became the first hymn he ever knew.

Years later, when he stood on the verge of adulthood, he faced the Trial of Ruin, an ancient duel in which a disciple must confront the one who trained him. Shengo expected struggle, maybe clarity, but instead he struck down his master in a single earth shaking blow… and for a breath the world was silent.

Then the sky answered.

Lightning slammed into him, charring flesh and bone, stopping his heart… and then starting it again. When the smoke cleared, the boy was gone, and a giant stood in his place, taller, broader, shaped by a single heartbeat of divine fury. The magic that struck him sealed time around his body, and he would never age again.

The scars from that night never healed, and instead he carved new ones over the old, marking his flesh with prayers and defiance. Each line was a promise that he would not bow, would not break, would not fear, and his face became something beyond mortal, half symbol, half warning, a ruin shaped by will and fire. Even the fearless hesitated beneath his gaze.

For all his monstrous appearance, Shengo learned that words could cut deeper than blades. He could laugh while being threatened, smile as he lied, speak truths that made people shift in discomfort. He understood that charisma and terror are siblings, not opposites, and sometimes a few chosen words moved a crowd, or stopped one dead.

In time, he created a creed that twined his god’s doctrine with the lessons carved into him.

The storm cleanses through ruin.
Promises bind only until the wind shifts.
Mercy is simply the pause between thunderclaps.
And those who insult him or Hei Feng must become echoes of thunder.

Immortality stripped away any sense of good or evil he might have had. They felt like shifting winds, useful in small ways, meaningless in the long term, and what mattered to Shengo was consequence… and will. Morality, he decided, was weather.

His wandering eventually brought him to Sigil, the City of Doors, a place so tangled in ideology, portals, and paradox that even gods stepped lightly. It was the perfect crucible for someone like him, a city where people whispered for the kind of help respectable souls never asked for openly. Those who hired him expected screams, and those he worked for wanted permanent solutions, irreversible persuasion, or problems removed entirely. Each time he finished a task, he laughed, because they believed they were leashing him, and in truth he was only indulging them.

Shengo’s presence was unmistakable. Towering over eight feet, he moved with quiet confidence, the scent of ozone following him like an omen. Lightning white scars traced his arms and chest, faint stripes shimmered across his shoulders when the light caught them just so, and molten gold eyes glowed beneath black hair streaked with silver. His armor hummed softly when he walked, as if echoing his heartbeat.

In battle, he exhaled once before the killing began, a low metallic hiss, like steel breathing. Anyone who fought beside him knew that breath was the beginning of the end, and when his first blow landed, laughter was close behind.

Yet beneath all his certainty lay old shadows.

He remembered the night he killed his master, the silence afterward still haunting him, and sometimes he wondered whether the lightning’s response had been blessing… or punishment. Had Hei Feng accepted the act, or condemned it with his quiet… he never truly knew.

Deeper still, something vast slumbered inside him, unknown even to him, a shard of an ancient storm older than any god, carried within the lightning that changed him, patient and waiting.

He was not without allies.
Lian Zephyrfire, an ifrit priestess who fought beside him, still called him brother and feared the day he might forget rebirth in favor of ruin.
Korin Iron Raft Tasuda, a planar smuggler, treated him like a natural disaster that happened to be punctual.

But enemies haunted his steps as well.
Abbot Chou Jin Ren, once a monk of Hei Feng and now bound to Mechanus, believed Shengo’s freedom endangered the balance.
Storm Lord Takai, a half celestial zealot, hunted him across planes, claiming Shengo’s existence insulted their shared god.

Shengo remembered little but vividly.
The instant of his awakening… when lightning stopped his heart and restarted it with laughter, remained etched in him.
He stirred any still water he passed, bowls, puddles, fountains, claiming that stagnation was death.
Before every battle he exhaled that slow hiss… a final warning.

Despite everything he had become, one desire lingered.

Somewhere across the multiverse lay the Eye of the Tempest, the place where all storms converge. Shengo longed to find it, to stand in its center, to see destruction and creation meet, and perhaps then understand whether he was truly Hei Feng’s instrument… or something altogether his own.

Until that day, he walked the City of Doors, laughing at those who tried to tame him, and smiling at those brave or foolish enough to walk by his side.