El Korro

Played By: Shawn (Unlicensed)

Well, hello there.

My real name is unimportant for the moment.  You may call me El Korro.  It is kobold slang for "the tricky," or "the crafty." 

My journey to wearing this hooded cloak and mask was a long one.

I grew up in a wealthy family.  My father is a merchant of no small means and my mother is a alchemist much in demand.  They always wanted a very structured life for me.  It was assumed I would follow in the footsteps of one of them.  But it was not to be.  For you see, I had a longing for adventure.  I wished to get out and see the wider world.  Ledgers, beakers, ink stained fingertips, burners…these things were not for El Korro.

Not that I was El Korro at that point in time.

My first taste of the adventuring life came when I noticed a young human girl who was a neighbor of mine being bullied by some other children.  The other children took her doll and ran off with it.  The ringleader of this little band took the doll home.  He was the son of a merchant that worked for the same house as my father, so I knew exactly where he lived.  I bided my time and that night, I snuck onto the grounds of his house, made my way to his bedroom, found the doll, and snuck back out.  All without being seen.  It was quite thrilling to say the least.

The next day I found the little girl and returned the doll to her.  I was basking in her praises when a shadow fell over me.  I looked up and saw the bully (who was about twice my size) and his compatriots looming over me.  The little girl scampered away with a frightened squawk, not that I blamed her.  The bully had witnessed my returning the doll to her and decided to pummel me for my efforts.  I tried to fight back, and dare say I got in my fair share of licks, but there were too many of them and I received a sound thrashing.

I returned home, made an excuse to my parents, and went to sulk in my bedroom.  Whilst doing so, I reflected back on the exhilaration of my escapades of the night before.  Even my beating couldn't make me forget how good it felt to put one over on the bully.  If only I hadn't gotten sloppy in returning the doll so openly.  It was then I realized that I wanted to continue to do things like that, but that it would be best if I did so secretly.  I would need a disguise.  An alter ego, as it were.

I spent the next while thinking about what I should disguise myself as.  I needed something that if spotted, would not immediately make people think "kobold" and something that also would startle anyone I might encounter in my escapades.

As I sat on the balcony of my room thinking about it, I noticed one of the many flying squirrels that infested the envrions of the city in that area.  It glided effortlessly from roof top to roof top.  That was it!  I would make myself a costume that would allow me to glide like that.  It would make sneaking in and out of places so much easier.

I made some plans and came up with an outfit I thought would work, but wanted to test it first.  So I snuck out to the woods outside of town, found an appropriate tree and began climbing it.  I heard a snorting noise and looked down and noticed a moose staring up at me.  I shrugged and went about my business.  I climbed to the top of the tree and after a few moments, launched myself into the air.  I plummeted to the ground, encountering many a different branch on the way down.  I could swear the moose was laughing at me.  Upon reflection, I realized that I did not have a tail to stabilize my flight like the actual squirrel did.  I also decided I would need a cap of some sort to protect my head.

A few days later, after cobbling together a tail of sorts from a broom and various stiff brushes from my mother's alchemy lab, acquiring a leather cap and some of my mother's goggles, I headed back to the same tree.  I had augmented the cap so that it looked like it was furry with ears so that I would look a good bit like a squirrel.  I figured anyone spotting a giant flying squirrel would think they were seeing things that weren't really there or even if they told anyone, no one would believe them.

As I climbed the tree again, I heard another snorting noise and looked down and saw the same moose watching me.  I perched on the same branch and after some final adjustments, launched myself into the air again.  I plummeted with even less grace that second time.  I could wear the moose shook its head in disgust and turned around and walked off.

As I limped back into town, some of the local kids spotted me and, much to my chagrin, quickly gave chase, shouting things about how the local taxidermist would pay a fortune for a flying squirrel of that size.  I beat a hasty retreat, shedding my costume as I went.

So, I gave up on trying to glide from rooftop to rooftop.  I figured either jumping or climbing would have to suffice for the time being.  But I thought that I would need something else to startle the would-be miscreants I was going to come up against and make them flee or at least not want to give chase like they just did.

I noticed it had started raining.  As I looked out my window and pondered, I noticed some people moving along in the street down below and how they were startled and momentarily blinded when a flash of lighting erupted nearby.  That was it!  I would dazzle the bullies and other miscreants with the blinding light of my brand of justice!

I quickly made my way down to my mother's workshop and absconded with a bullseye lantern and some alchemical flash powders.  After some experimentation, I had my lantern of justice ready to go.  I came up with a dark red outfit to match the lantern's light and off I went.  I spent the next two nights bored, sitting on the rooftops of the neighborhood watching for miscreants to deal with.  Then it occurred to me that since my parents' house was in a nice area of town, perhaps I needed to go further afield, so to speak.

And so I headed to one of the poorer sections of town and waited.  It was not long before I noticed something amiss.  There were two miscreants trying to pick the back door lock on a building across the alley.  I scampered down the wall of the building I was on and snuck over towards them.  I slid some powder into the burner on the lantern and quickly threw back the shutter, shining the red light from within on them, exposing their deeds.  I yelled, "Evil doers beware.  Behold my Red Lantern's light!"

They beheld it alright.  In fact, it gave them a great target to chase as they came running after me down the alleyway, shouting to each other about how much my "magic lantern" would be worth.  I scampered away, tossing the lantern into a pile of trash and accidentally starting a blaze that consumed about half a city block.

So it was back to the drawing board.

My next few attempts were likewise unsuccessful. 

Trying  to swing around from building to building on alchemically treated webbing backfired in that, well, the webbing didn't want to let go of me when I wanted to let go of it.  I ended up hanging from a rooftop, swaying back and forth in the strong wind from the storm that evening, like some sort of overgrown wind chime.  Luckily the webbing dissolved before dawn.

Then I struck upon the idea of using haste potions to allow me to run really fast, based on the theory that I would be moving so quickly that I could deal with the miscreants before they even realized what was happening.  Unfortunately, they had no trouble realizing I was there when I failed to turn a corner sharp enough whilst running hasted and slammed into a wall right next to them.  They were at least startled enough by the sudden appearance of a squawking kobold squashed up against the wall next to them that they beat a hasty retreat.

After taking about a week to recover from that incident, it occurred to me that I just need to keep things simple.  My parents had long ago paid for a fencing instructor for me, so I was rather adept at the use of a rapier and other keen blades of that sort.  I made a simple black outfit to help me blend into the night, and went out to poke and stab at the miscreants.

I became quite successful at this, managing to deliver comeuppance to a large number of bullies and other miscreants.  I also found this activity to be quite lucrative.  Sometimes I would discover a miscreant that needed comeuppance, but there was no one to return any valuables to, so I would keep them for myself.  This helped fund my crusade to bring miscreants to justice. 

It was a short while after I started this that people around town began telling tales of "El Korro."  Stories about how "El Korro, The Hooded One" was dishing out comeuppance to those that deserved it were making my alter ego quite popular.  The "K" I often left carved into walls, doors or even sometimes the very miscreants themselves became my calling card.

And, also made things a bit hot for me.  The local authorities came after me and I decided I needed to lay low for a while.  "El Korro" went on the road, looking to take his brand of justice to other locations.  I wandered a bit, looking for miscreants to deal with, and deal with them I did.  But things got a bit hazy after a while and I eventually wound up here, talking with you people.  It seems that "El Korro" needs some funding to continue with his crusade to deal with the miscreants.