Jericho, The Bounty Hunter
Appearance, Mannerisms and Personality
Jericho is tough and hardened and measures everything with the clink of coin. Having tasted both sides of poverty Jericho strives harder for gold than most; willing to sacrifice even his last shred of moral fiber if the pay is right. He is
quiet and somewhat reserved. He has a difficult time opening himself up to and trusting others, even though he would like to. Well into his Forties, and recovering from his mid-life crisis has given him a tough time decided the line between right and wrong and deciding if he even cares in the first place. Jericho usually doesn’t think about the consequences of his actions but he’s trying to improve his shredded morality; even if he fails to show it sometimes.
Jericho has dark and shaggy hair that he tries to keep out of his face with whatever bandanna, hat, string, or hooded cloak available. Having lost everything; he travels only with the clothes on his back; which are covered by a dark cloak that he uses to keep his weapons and bonding ropes hidden. Jericho shaves only when it begins to become a burden. He has both ears pierced and is missing a bottom tooth, lost in a fistfight.
Background
Jericho was raised an orphan on the streets of Halsburg. He was forced upon the harsh lesson of becoming self-reliant before reaching adulthood. After years of countless odd jobs he came across the poster of a man wanted for counterfeiting. Labeling the man as an easy target he started his search beginning only with a name and a fairly lightweight coin. He later found, subdued, and arrested the man by tracking the circulation of his coin. Jericho hit windfall by keeping the criminals products for himself as well gaining notoriety as a bounty hunter.
Jericho picked up a little on counterfeiting as well as theft and extortion but mostly kept to hunting heads for a living. Targets were plenty in the city of thieves. Most of the ones paying for the bounties were elsewhere, too afraid to come into Halsburg themselves. Jericho became a well-known and hated face amongst most of the city as they began to know him as the one who reconnected men with past lives; as most of the bounties were placed on criminals escaping from their pasts. Jericho decided he was, at least, better than the alternative. Most clients would have contacted one of the Assassin Guild’s and have them dispatched. People rarely cared to have their bounties paid alive in the River Kingdoms.
Jericho married in his mid-twenties to a comely woman named Clara. He seemed to be having a happy and quite ordinary life until the discovery of his wife’s affair with another man shattered him back to reality. Weeks went by before he decided to confront his cheating wife but, by that time, she had already run off with her lover and with Jericho’s life savings. After the rage inside him calmed Jericho was engulfed only with distrust. It was this tragedy combined with the constant gang activity that convinced him to move. Jericho decided to start his life over.. he just wasn’t sure where.
Moving to the River Kingdoms Jericho began anew. Falling back on his bounty hunting skills he soon established a name for himself as a man who could get the job done. Never staying in one small Fiefdom or self-proclaimed despot’s region for long he would still receive job offers throughout the region. This would have continued unabated until one fateful night when one job just crossed the line – the small line of moral right and wrongs that still steered him on.
Hired to set fire to the home of a local merchant behind on his debt to the local thieves guild Jericho was assured that no one was inside when the deed was to be done. Being careful not to be seen or heard he carefully and methodically began targeting the structurally vital points of the building. Double checking things he pulled out his tinder box and struck the spark that would send the place up in a blaze like no other. Right as, bleary eyes from sleep, a thirteen year old boy walked out of his bedroom. Murder was not something he had signed on for – especially that of a teenage child.
Diving through the fire Jericho trapped himself within the blaze in a feudal attempt to rescue the boy. Moving into the storeroom and lowering himself and the boy into large caskets of potted water he had to listen to the screams of the young boy’s parents as they burned alive.
The next morning, after clearing away the debris from the lifesaving kegs, he found the boy. Struck dumb by the shock of the nights events the boy was catatonic. Wiping soot from his face and seeing the son he never had Ash was born. Jericho thought it ironic that the boy who survived the fire that killed his family was named after the only thing that was left of them.
A Day in the Life
A soft rain beats down onto the muddy road below as Jericho examines a parchment describing his most recent quarry. He attempts to protect it from the rain while trying to make out what the already smudged and running ink reads. “Wanted! By government for the murder of a woman and for six robberies. Young male kid about five foot three, dark hair and wearing a slate gray shirt and hood. Armed with a knife.” The rest of the note has already bled too far past reading; along with the reward. Jericho lets out a long sigh. ’I’ve got to hunt down this kid and I’ve not an idea of how much silver I’ll get. At least I’ll get a fair amount since he’s a killer; thank whoever for that.’
He continues his journey down the road that the townsfolk said he would have taken to escape. Popular roads make it difficult for him to judge which tracks left are newest. “It doesn’t help that it’s been raining for days..” Jericho’s keen eyes catch a figure laying on the ground over the next hill. He inhales a quick burst of air and then his breath stops for merely a second before he hastens his pace to a run. Sliding to a stop he kneels down to an apparently injured man bleeding from the torso. The man whimpers in fear, barely clutching to life. He gets a second look and immediately the man stars to cry “Oh thank you! Thank YOU! I’m saved! Thank the good spirits that I have been saved an….” The elderly man’s rambles are interrupted by a firm voice from Jericho who now notices that the wound looks like it came from a knife “Who did this?! What did he look like?”
“I.. I.. He took everything I have.. he..” The man sobs some more. “…stabbed me. But I’m alright now. You’re a hero here to save this poor old farmer” Jericho’s yells this time, agitated by the dying man’s inability to answer his question “Was he wearing a gray cloak!?” The man, now confused, begins coughing and gets out “yes” between coughs. “you going to help me? I’ll die!” Jericho looks at the man and pities him. He looks to the road ahead and considers leaving the man to his fate.. “How long ago?” Jericho rips a piece of cloth from his cloak and wraps it around the man, tying it tightly. ”About half an hour” He helps him up and to a tree to lean against. “This is all I can do. I’ll send help.” Jericho begins to run off when the man shouts before he’s out of earshot “Hurry Stranger! My farm isn’t far up the road. Don’t let him get my wife!”
Jericho’s strengths don’t particularly play to his speed; it’s his endurance and ability to run for long periods that make him good at this. Heel over foot he runs across the muddy road for nearly an hour. Fresh tracks becoming more obvious; able to tell that the thief is panicking and paranoid. He passes the farm and realizes that the tracks don’t lead to the door, but a concerned woman looks from outside. Conscience gets the best of him and Jericho stops and yells to the woman “Your husband is up the road. He’s been stabbed. Hurry to him while he still lives” Jericho’s eyes wander away from the woman as a surge of adrenaline rushes through him. The murderous kid in slate gray, not covered in blood stands hidden beside a tree a few hundred feet away. He sees Jericho looking back and runs just as he gives chase.
The two run through the rest of the road and into a small unnamed town. ‘Finally,’ Jericho thinks ‘a break’. He leaps into the first house and begins to run atop the shops on the main street. After closing the distance he bounds over a wall and comes crashing down on the kid, pinning him to the ground and grabbing his arm, already holding a vicious looking, bloodstained dagger. Wrestling him over Jericho slugs him in the back of the head several times until he drops the knife, Not sure whether he’s even left him alive or dead he takes his rope and binds his hands tightly, along with his feet. Several townsfolk have gathered around, and an angry guard approaches “What in the hell have you done? I’ll have you arrested!” Jericho stands, dusts himself off and removes the smudged wanted paper, showing it to the guard. “Ahh, Good, You can pay me now.”
