Ka-Zar Hero
Real Name: Kevin Plunder.
Occupation: Protector, tribal champion.
Identity: Ka-Zar's existence is generally unknown outside of the Savage Land.
Legal Status: Citizen of the United Kingdom with no criminal record, legally missing and presumed deceased; adopted member of the Fall People Tribe of the Savage Land.
Other Aliases: "Son of the Tiger" (the literal translation of his preferred name).
Place of Birth: Unrevealed, though quite possibly inside the Savage Land.
Marital Status: Married according to the customs of the Savage Land.
Known Relatives: Robert (father, deceased); Parnival (aka the Plunderer, brother); Matthew (grandfather, deceased); Shanna O'Hara (aka Shanna the She-Devil, common-law wife).
Group Affiliation: Partner of Shanna the She-Devil and Zabu.
Base of Operations: Mobile throughout the Savage Land.
First Post-Reboot Appearance: LOST WORLD OF THE SAVAGE LAND #13.
History: Kevin's grandfather, the British nobleman explorer Matthew, Lord Plunder, is credited with discovering the Savage Land, a prehistoric jungle located in a hidden valley in Antarctica, in 1962 after following accounts recorded during the early 20th Century. As a child, Kevin and his older brother, Parnival, were raised in the Savage Land by their parents in the Fall People village. When he was eight, the Fall People were attacked by their long-time rivals, the Swamp Men; during the raid, Kevin witnessed one of the Swamp Men kill his parents. Left only with his father's Bowie knife and the family's adopted sabretooth cub, Zabu, Kevin fled into a region of the Savage Land known as the Land of Mists, a forest filled with thick mists from a river emptying into a volcanic vent which the Swamp Men considered to be haunted and a place of evil. Unknown to Kevin, Parnival had escaped the Savage Land and returned to England.
For ten years, Kevin and Zabu traveled across the Savage Land, living off the land. During this time, Kevin became known to many denizens of the Savage Land as "Ka-Zar", which translates into English as "Son of the Tiger". It wasn't until recently that Ka-Zar returned to the Fall People village to discover his parents' diaries were being held by their old friend, Chief Tongah, for him. In the years that followed, Ka-Zar continued moving around the Savage Land, but he kept returning to the Fall People village. For a time, Ka-Zar had a romance with Tongah's teenage daughter, Nereel, but Ka-Zar's wanderlust kept them apart more than they were together.
Recently, Ka-Zar was hired as a guide by graduate biology student Shanna O'Hara, who had come to the Savage Land to study the ecology there. At the same time, the sorceress Zaladane began a campaign to conquer the Savage Land with the assistance of the Sun People tribe and a few of the Savage Land Mutates. Ka-Zar, Zabu, and Shanna were drawn into the conflict and proved instrumental in thwarting Zaladane's campaign of war. Since then, Ka-Zar and Shanna have begun a romance and are now considered by Savage Land customs to be married.
Even more recently, Ka-Zar learned that his brother survived and, with the family fortune at his sole disposal, was assisting the Roxxon Energy Company (which he apparently owns stock in) in exploiting the Savage Land's natural resources as the Plunderer, in violation of the international Antarctic Treaty. Ka-Zar and his allies helped thwart his brother's plans, though Parnival has once again escaped the Savage Land. Ka-Zar's further exploits are presently unrecorded.
Age: 23.
Height: 6'.
Weight: 200 lbs.
Eyes: Blue.
Hair: Blond.
Uniform: None.
Strength Level: Ka-Zar possesses the normal human strength of a man his age, height, and build who engages in intensive regular exercise.
Known Superhuman Powers: None.
Other Abilities: Ka-Zar is a skilled if undisciplined hand to hand combatant, skilled in the use of the Stone Age weapons of the Savage Land.
Weapons: Ka-Zar's preferred weapon is the steel bowie knife he inherited from his father.
420 points
| ST: 14 [40] | HP: 20 [12] | Speed: 7.00 [0] |
| DX: 14 [80] | Will: 14 [15] | Move: 7 [0] |
| IQ: 11 [20] | Per: 14 [15] | |
| HT: 14 [40] | FP: 14 [0] | SM: 0 |
| Dmg: 1d/2d | BL: 39 lbs. | |
| Dodge: 14 | Parry: 12 | DR: 0 |
Languages: English (Accented) [4]; Savage Land Speech (Native Spoken/Illiterate) (Native Language) [-3].
Cultural Familiarities: Savage Land (Native) [0].
Advantages: Absolute Direction [5]; Ally (Zabu, Sabertooth Cat; 50% Starting Points) (15) [6]; Ambidexterity [5]; Animal Empathy [5]; Animal Friend 2 [10]; Appearance (Handsome) [12]; Claim to Hospitality (Many Savage Land Peoples) [5]; Combat Reflexes [15]; Danger Sense [15]; Enhanced Dodge 3 [45]; Hard to Kill 3 [6]; Hard to Subdue 3 [6]; High Pain Threshold [10]; Intuition [15]; Outdoorsman 3 [30]; Rapid Healing [5]; Resistant to Disease (+3) [3]; Resistant to Poisons (+3) [5]; Very Fit [15].
Perks: Call of the Wild [1]; Extended Hearing (High) [1]; Extra Option (Bulletproof Nudity) [1]; Eye For Distance [1]; Fearsome Stare [1]; Neck Control (Brawling) [1]; Sure-Footed (Uneven) [1].
Disadvantages: Code of Honor (Pirate's) [-5]; Enemy (Swamp Men; Large Group of up to 1,000 members) (9) [-30]; Hidebound [-5]; Low TL -8 [-40]; On the Edge (12) [-15]; Pacifism (Cannot Harm Innocents) [-10]; Sense of Duty (Savage Land) [-15]; Status -1 [-5]; Wealth (Poor) [-15].
Quirks: Broad-Minded [-1]; Decisive [-1]; Immodest [-1]; Responsive [-1]; Unimaginative [-1].
Skills: Acrobatics (H) DX+0 [4] – 14; Animal Handling (Big Cats) (A) IQ+2 [2] – 13*; Animal Handling (Theropods) (A) IQ+2 [2] – 13*; Area Knowledge (Savage Land) (E) IQ+3 [8] – 14; Armoury/TL0 (Melee Weapons) (A) IQ+1 [4] – 12; Brawling (E) DX+2 [4] – 16; Camouflage (E) IQ+4 [1] – 15†‡; Carpentry (E) IQ+1 [2] – 12; Climbing (A) DX+0 [2] – 12; Fast-Draw (Knife) (E) DX+1 [1] – 15§; Fishing (E) Per+4 [2] – 18†; Flint Knapping (A) DX-1 [1] – 13; Gesture (E) IQ+1 [2] – 12; Hiking (A) HT+0 [2] – 14; Intimidation (A) Will+0 [2] – 14; Jumping (E) DX+1 [2] – 15; Knife (E) DX+2 [4] – 16; Knot-Tying (E) DX+0 [1] – 14; Mimicry (Animal Sounds) (H) IQ+2 [2] – 13†; Naturalist (Savage Land) (H) IQ+3 [4] – 14†; Navigation/TL0 (Land) (A) IQ+7 [4] – 18†#; Observation (A) Per+0 [2] – 14; Professional Skill (Butcher) (A) DX-1 [1] – 13; Professional Skill (Tanner) (A) IQ+0 [2] – 11; Running (A) HT+0 [2] – 14; Spear (A) DX+0 [2] – 14; Stealth (A) DX+2 [8] – 16; Survival (Jungle) (A) Per+3 [2] – 17†; Swimming (E) HT+2 [4] – 16; Throwing (A) DX+0 [2] – 14; Thrown Weapon (Knife) (E) DX+2 [4] – 16; Thrown Weapon (Spear) (E) DX+1 [2] – 15; Tracking (A) Per+4 [4] – 18†; Veterinary/TL0 (H) IQ+2 [2] – 12*; Weather Sense (A) IQ+1 [4] – 12; Wrestling (A) DX+2[8] – 16.
Techniques: Arm Lock (Wrestling) (A) def+0 [0] – 16; Armed Grapple (Knife) (H) def+2 [3] – 16; Choke Hold (Wrestling) (H) def+3 [4] – 16.
Starting Spending Money: $760 (20% of Starting Wealth, minus the cost of his Bowie knife, carried in trade goods for barter rather than actual cash).
* Includes +2 from Animal Friend.
† Includes +3 from Outdoorsman.
‡ Defaulted from Survival (Jungle).
§ Includes +1 from Combat Reflexes.
# Includes +3 from Absolute Direction.
Role-Playing Notes:
Ka-Zar is a man who has lived a simple hunter-gatherer lifestyle since adolescence. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, though these values can differ in significant ways from those of the outside world. With what he's learned of the outside world from his parents' diaries, his brother, and his wife, he is certain he doesn't want to venture outside the Savage Land.
Ka-Zar's Bowie Knife
| KNIFE | ||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TL | Weapon | Damage | Reach | Parry | Cost | Weight | ST | Notes |
| 8 | Bowie Knife | 2d-1 cut | C, 1 | 11 | $40 | 1 | 6 | [1] |
| or | 1d+1 imp | C | 11 | 6 | ||||
| THROWN WEAPON (KNIFE) | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| TL | Weapon | Damage | Acc | Range | Weight | RoF | Shots | Cost | ST | Bulk | Notes |
| 8 | Bowie Knife | 1d+1 imp | 0 | 11/21 | 1 | 1 | T(1) | $40 | 6 | -2 | [1] |
Notes:
[1] Fine Quality knife bought at TL6+.
Design Notes:
1. Ka-Zar is one of the few characters I'll explicitly give the Extra Option Perk to (p. PU2:20), in his case Bulletproof Nudity, as fitting his "noble barbarian" motif; running around in just a loincloth against folks with guns, he needs all the help he can get!
2. For campaigns set in the Savage Land, set the local TL to 0, removing Ka-Zar's Low TL disadvantage, raise his Wealth from Poor to Average, and his Status to 0, a net increase of 60 points. Note that his knife's price will increase due to both quality and being made of steel, a TL3 material, a net ×24 to price ($960; ×4 from Fine Quality, ×8 from being 3 TLs above the setting); a good idea would be to take it as Signature Gear.