Tai Pan En
| "In the darkness of the night the Lord Slumbor came to the world and gave it dreams and the dreams were the paving stones of the way to Enlightenment which the whole world must use wisely" |
Tai Pan En is my character
in the GURPS game On the Run
in Telida run by Paul Myers.
Five years ago Tai Pan En left the mountain temple in the southern lands of Scarra where he had spent most of his life since the aging monk Usic Pin had rescued him from the ruins of his village and taken him into the arms of Slumbor. Although Tai had completed the arduous and secret training of the monks of Shan Lin and attained the rank of Sen Kai (the first rank in Tai Shen Kiri his style.) he was not satisfied with his life in the monastry. Though he studied the sacred texts he could not see hismelf coming closer to enlightenment when he had seen so little of the world the Gods had created. At last he talked with his Sensi Pin and they agreed that if Tai was ever to reach enlightenment he must first travel the world.
So it was that Tai Pan En shouldered his pack and took up his trusty set of Prayer Beads and set out. At first he journeyed through his native land of Scarra, but soon he turned northwards and, on foot, crossed the vast land till he found himself at the roof of the world in frozen Telida. Here, much changed by his wandrings, he joined up with a rag-tag group of warriors, seeking first sustenance, then freindship and now the chance to take others on the first steps of the road to enlightenment.
Tai Pan En now works as part of a team of special agents for the House of Rorvik merchants. Although his order frowns on personal wealth it believes that works and places dedicated to Slumbor are honourable aims. For this reason Tai hopes to attain enough money to build a temple to Slumbor here in the barbarian north where his name is unknown. In this way he hopes to reach the path of enlightenment not by hiding from the world, as once his masters did, but by bringing the word and teachings of Slumbor to all.
Tai Pan En was a GURPS Martial Arts character built from a basic 120 points with 40pts of disadvantages. He ended the game at something like a 300+ point character (as did most of the avenging hand). He is a Mage, concentrating on Air Magic, and has primary skills in karate, Judo, and his prayer beads (a weapon). His chief tactics are to turn into air and sneak around, walk on air and jump on people from above, or just to charge screaming and hit people... as the Lord Slumbor once said, the impetuous man often breaks the reed till he comes to combat the crane.
The miniatures illustrated are my own conversions of some lead ninjas into Tai Pan En figures. The robes, beads and heads are all built up out of Milliput and the figures attached to square Citadel bases before painting.
Tai Pan En's Letters to his Master
