Kile Hunter – The Raven

[Black Sam]

THE RAVEN
REAL NAME: Killian Thomas Hunter
ALIASES: Kile Hunter; Kyle DuChamp
IDENTITY: Secret (not registered)
BASE OF OPERATIONS: Spector Manor, Long Island
OCCUPATION: High school student/vigilante
PLACE OF BIRTH: Jericho, NY
CITIZENSHIP: American
SPECIES: Human
GENDER: Male
HAIR: Brown
EYES: Brown
HEIGHT: 5' 11"
WEIGHT: 175#
AGE: 17

ABILITIES
INTELLIGENCE: 3 
STRENGTH: 3 
AGILITY: 3 
SPEED: 3 
HEALTH: 3 
ENERGY: 18 
REGENERATION: 7 

ACTIONS
Acrobatics 0/4

• Agility bonus
• Movement action
• Subtract AN from stones of falling damage

Close Combat 0/5

• Strength bonus or weapon modifier
• Split stones for multiple targets
• Specialties: none
• Mimicked Specialties: boxing; Egyptian weapons; hand-to-hand; martial arts

Ninja 4/0

• Agility bonus and weapon modifier OR two weapon modifiers
• Close or ranged combat
• Split stones for multiple targets
• MN -1 without the Raven Totem
• Specialties: ambushes; bōjutsu; non-lethal techniques; stealth
• Mimicked Specialties: none

Private Investigating 4 

• General investigative skills
• Specialties: breaking and entering; disguise; evidence gathering; hacking
  

Ranged Combat 0/4

• Weapon Modifier
• Split stones for multiple targets
• Specialties: none
• Mimicked Specialties: boomerangs; darts; thrown weapons

Social Skills 3/3 

• Interaction with NPCs
• Specialties: edge lord; intimidation; streetwise
• Mimicked Specialties: false identities; high society; underworld

Thieving 0/0 

• Agility bonus
• General thieving skills
• Specialties: none
  
• Mimicked Specialties: none

Vehicle Operation 0/3

• Operate vehicles
• Specialties: none
• Copied Specialties: light vehicles; taxicab

MODIFIERS
Mimicry 

• As Photographic Reflexes
• Mimic any non-superpower physical Actions
• Must witness specific specialization to mimic
• +2 stone situation modifier against mimicked opponent
• Must have the Raven Totem to acquire new techniques but can still remember those already learned without it 

Photographic Memory 

• Remember everything seen or read

Precognitive Flashes

• Opportunities to deliver justice
• Presence of the Hand
• Spiritual/supernatural crises
• Whatever Raven fancies

Prescience

• Part of Mimicry
• May change stone allocation after enemy attack stones are revealed (declare contingency change)
• Only works against those whose fighting styles he’s mimicked

Raven Senses 4

• As Animal Senses:
• Acute sound recognition
• Can detect food, poison, and disease at great distances
• Heightened motion and detail perception; low-light

[li]MN vs. resistance to detection
[/li][li]Must have the Raven Totem to use [/li][/ul]
Reflexive Dodge 3 

• Bought with Animal Senses 
• Add MN to defense
• MN -1 without the Raven Totem 

Targeting 1

• Add MN to ranged attacks
• MN -1 without the Raven Totem 

Trickster Spirit 3 

• As Bad Luck – an invisible, incorporeal helper makes things more difficult for his foes
• Subtract MN from opponent’s action so it fails by 1 stone
• Cannot be used for selfish purposes or the MN turns on him (general acts of trickery are fine) 
• Must have the Raven Totem to use

Wealth 3

• Trust fund

EQUIPMENT
Bolas +1

• Ranged attack vs. Agility to ensnare, Difficult 1 Resistance 5 Agility or Strength to break free
• No damage

Boomerangs +2

• Returns to thrower

Cloak 1

• Flight, gliding/parachute only, short distances

Costume

• +1 defense

Extending Bo Staff +1/+1

• Extends from 1 foot to 6 feet long for fighting, up to 12 feet long for vaulting
• Double weapon for fighting multiple opponents
• Adds MN to leaping distance

Go-Bags

• Kevlar backpacks that holds the Raven costume and gear in a compacting secret compartment complete with biometric lock
• Room for a couple textbooks if he takes the time to pack it properly
• Geo-locator

Handcuffs

• Difficulty 6 Resistance 6

Grapple Gun +2

• Add MN to Acrobatics when traveling the skyline

Raven Darts +1

• Throw two darts for +2
• Throw a fistful of darts for +3

Raven Totem

• A small, spread-winged raven pendant (like the emblem on his chest), made of flint with a faux-gold backing
• Always worn around his neck, under his clothes
• No special properties, no magical auras, isn't particularly valuable – but Raven is somehow connected to it

Smoke Bombs +2

• Provides concealment, MN adds to difficulty of detection

Tear Gas Grenade +2

• Area Effect, attack vs. Durability, Stun Damage (damage is taken from energy, first in Actions, then in energy reserve)

Tracking Devices

• Range 7, Duration 1 week, +4 vs. detection

Voice Scrambler

• Distorts his voice with directional echoing effects that seem to originate around him
• Acts as a communicator

CHALLENGES 
A Woman Scorned +2 When Kile left his old life behind, he also left behind the one person he was closest to, Koken, who ended up in some secret government prison. Kile never checked up on her; never tried to help. Of course, she did play a role in the murder of his family, but that point of logic is unlikely to win him any points when his ex shows back up as his arch-enemy.

Deadly Enemies +3 The Hand is still out there, and Kile has no illusions about their plans for him. But he’s done hiding, and the next time they show up he’ll be ready. They don’t know about his nighttime activities just yet, but Marc Spector’s identity as Moon Knight is a matter of public record, and although Frenchie is officially listed as his legal guardian, they do share the same address as the sometimes-Avenger.

Edge Lord +2 You’d be sullen and impulsive too if you were responsible for the tragic deaths of your entire family. Kile struggles to control his inner demons, and usually comes across as short-tempered and aloof to his peers. Unfortunately, a number of his shallower classmates interpret this to mean that he’s one of them, a too-cool snob proficient in delightfully cutting insights – but in reality, he’s just doing his best to live in the same world as they.

Lunatic Mentor +1 Marc Spector sometimes acts like he wants to be Kile’s dad, sometimes his drill sergeant. It’s like he’s two different people depending on the phase of the moon – and he is, literally. Kile understands his mentor’s condition and doesn’t hold the sudden shifts in mood and personality against him, but that doesn’t make them easy to deal with.

Secret Identity +1 Kile knows that he will always have to deceive those closest to him, or everyone he cares about will pay. It’s a lesson he learned early in life.

Supernatural Obligation +1 Kile is the totemic champion of a powerful and ancient animal spirit; a trickster whose methods and motives are often inscrutable. Sometimes it wants things that don’t make sense to Kile, and not making them a priority can lead to the Raven withdrawing when he’s needed most. Or not – from what Kile’s deduced, it depends on the spirit’s mood, and most often Raven just doesn’t want to be bored.

Vulnerable Others +5 Kile’s greatest enemy is and always will be the Hand. He can fight off one or ten of them in a straight-up fight, but that isn’t how ninjas operate. Whoever Kile gets close to is a potential target, and as much as he wants to keep everyone at arm’s length, it just isn’t realistic. (See the NPCs section for details on these characters.)

[Black Sam]

BACKGROUND
The first time something ever happened to disrupt the suburban glamour of Kile Hunter’s childhood was a run-in with a Friendly Neighborhood Superhero on a sixth-grade fieldtrip. It wasn’t a big, glamorous museum or anything like that, and he really hadn’t wanted to be there in the first place, but when the Amazing Spider-Man came crashing through the wall into the Old West display his teacher was droning on about, it was suddenly the best day of his life.

The battle passed through the museum like a sudden gale, with apologies and well-timed sprays of webbing as the hero fended off Doctor Octopus, later to see him imprisoned for his latest crimes. Picking himself up from the rubble, Kile’s hand came to rest on a piece of jewelry broken free from its case, a “good luck charm” owned by a famous gambler and outlaw, from what he recalled of the lecture. Kile examined the small bit of jewelry while the shock rippled through everyone around him; a black, stone raven set in a backing of fake gold the teacher had said. Staring at it calmed him, and for some reason – not caring that it was wrong – he took the trinket home with him.

That incident set in motion Kile’s childhood obsession with ravens and with superheroes. He always left shiny offerings and treats on his windowsill for the birds and convinced his parents to let him try more and more exciting sports that made him feel heroic, from hockey and freeclimbing to parkour and martial arts. Kile was well on his way to a black belt in French savate by the age of 13, which was about the time his parents realized that he had a gift. They found a private trainer who had a reputation for producing Olympic-level athletes, and convinced the man to take Kile on.

The coach, it turned out, actually had a side-gig working as a recruiter for an ancient cult, the Hand, who took acolytes from all walks of life. The ninja clan ran a secret fraternity at elite military academy upstate, and the scholarship letter inviting Kile to attend seemed like a miracle. Kile’s father was a local physician and his mother a successful artist, both successful and affluent professionals, but this opportunity promised to elevate their son's opportunities far beyond what they previously hoped for. In his first year away from home, Kile met his first real girlfriend, another scholarship student named Koken Kobiashi. The two were inseparable and notorious; a real junior power couple despite their underclassmen status. Koken was ambitious and intense, motivated by a past very different from Kile's to rise above those around her. Over the course of their first year, the couple was among a handful of students inducted into the secret society, swayed with talk of power and honor and indoctrinated to the point that their families hardly recognized them.

The brutal graduation from his training as a ninja came at the end of their sophomore year in a ceremony that required each of them to shed blood – and not their own. Swearing oaths of fealty to the Hand, the students took turns stabbing a stranger; Kile didn't deliver the killing blow (Koken was eager for that honor), and he never discovered the victim's identity, but that night will always haunt him. The graduation ceremony inflicted a painful dissonance in Kile's mind which awakened him from the Hand's brainwashing. While Koken and the others reveled in their newfound status, the realization of what he’d done, at what he’d become, set Kile to flight.

Not thinking of the consequences, he fled the academy alone in horror, returning to his family to seek absolution for the things he’d done. He didn’t tell them, of course. He couldn’t. Instead he fabricated a story about breaking up with Koken and took refuge in his old attic bedroom for a couple days. His family gave him plenty of space, but the brief period of sanctuary ended with a knock at the front door.

They let Koken upstairs to visit him, of course, thinking that the reconciliation she pretended was just what Kile needed to lift his spirits. When they were alone, Koken offered her condolences.

“What for?” He asked, confused. He’d thought she’d be furious with him; violent even – not smiling venomously, offering mysterious condolences.

“For the accident, of course,” was her reply.

That’s when the police arrived to inform them. There’d been a terrible accident. Kile’s younger sister had been killed…mechanical failure…no fault… And Koken just smiled. She was gone before he came to his senses.

As hard as his sister’s death was, it got even worse when his mother was also killed. It was the night before the funeral. She’d stopped by her studio to pick up a few things when a street gang brutalized and murdered her before she reached home.

Kile’s dad took longer to before paying for his son’s crime. Kile tried to tell him everything, but the attempts only made him sound insane with grief. D. Hunter developed a sudden illness a couple days after the funeral, suffering from a toxic reaction his colleagues had never seen before and didn’t know how to treat. He lingered in an agony for weeks.

Sitting in the hospital lobby, listening as adults discussed his fate in the next room, Kile fled once again, and once again he found himself back home in his old room. He sat there for hours, mind empty, when he suddenly remembered the old talisman he’d stolen as a kid. Taking it from the hiding place in his dresser, he walked it over to the windowsill and held it up to the moonlight. He’d never worn the thing before – it would have required an explanation to his parents had they seen it, and necklaces were never his style. He felt the charm’s cool weight, turning it for examination, feeling the smooth contours on his fingers, admiring the strange way the glassy stone caught silver light. For the first time he put it on, and that’s his will resolved.

Late that night, Kile went back to the academy with the intent to either fight the Hand or plead for his father’s life – he hadn’t quite decided even as he stepped out of the taxi, knowing that both gestures were futile. The trip back to the campus had been strange all by itself, with the ravens native to his old neighborhood following him the entire distance. Despite his determination to see the confrontation through to its conclusion, the Hand was no longer there. Who was there was S.H.I.E.L.D, and a whole lot of cops. In the roundup the local Hand cult, Kile spied Koken in manacles, waiting under guard with others for a transport that take them all away. Kile was both relieved and afraid – for now the threat was gone, but he knew that eventually the Hand would come back for what was owed.  

Kile made it back to the hospital just in time for his father’s last breaths. He wanted to swear an oath, or vow vengeance, or say something heroic, but he knew that he was responsible for all of it. Instead, holding his father's desiccated hand, Kile promised to make them proud. He was later questioned by authorities over his connections at the academy, but Kile feigned ignorance. He and Koken had broken up, he told them, and he'd dropped out of the Academy soon after. He wasn't really a suspect, so no more questions were asked. 

As Kile had no next-of-kin, an older couple down the street took him in. The Hunter’s house and assets were sold, the huge sum of insurance money went into a trust fund, and Kile tried to go on with his life. He went to the local high school by day and turned out perfect grades with alarming intensity. He kept everyone around him at arms-length, knowing that the Hand was still out there and that he was still marked for death. All of his spare time was spent in training, whether it was out of sight around town or paying for lessons from his savings. He picked up new fighting styles with seemingly supernatural efficiency, mimicking the years-won skill of the boxing instructor at Fogwell's Gym and the krav maga instructor at the YMCA, barely spending more than a few weeks at each before surpassing his teachers.

Weird things didn’t stop with the ravens, either. Everywhere he went one of the birds would pop up, and they started leaving treasures for him to find in the mornings. It wasn’t until he noticed that sometimes he was the only one who saw them that he started to pay more attention to the old rock hanging around his neck – and wondered if he was going crazy.

As it often happens with teenagers, a girl came along and threw a wrench into his routine.

Her name was Diatrice; a cute, strawberry-blond girl that might have won his heart if it hadn’t been sealed. Kile knew that getting close to him would put her in danger, but try as he might he couldn’t convince the would-be friend that he was completely disinterested.

He was very correct about his friendship putting people in danger. What Kile was wrong about was the nice older couple who opened their home to him; a pair of ninja spies bidding their time to put more blood in his ledger before taking his life too. Kile wasn't making it easy for them keeping to himself, so when pretty young Diatrice came knocking on their door they knew the time to continue their mission had arrived. Unfortunately for them, young Diatrice happened to be the daughter of another enemy of the Hand, Marc Spector – the Moon Knight.

Spector detected right away that someone was scouting his Long Island mansion, located only a few blocks from where Kile grew up, and quickly determined that the Hand had taken an interest in his child. That of course led him to Kile, who he deduced was also a member of the Hand.

The Moon Knight ambushed Kile on the way home from a climbing gym in the city. The operation didn’t go as smoothly as the vigilante planned, however – Kile spotted his approach and turned aside the opening blow. Moon Knight tumbled away, loosing a bola from his utility belt. Kile clipped it mid-flight with a shuriken he’d turned out in shop class. The veteran hero pressed the attack, clearly the superior combatant, but things kept getting in the way, the boy kept getting lucky, anticipating his blows – at one point, a TV dish mysteriously fell from the side of someone’s apartment and almost clocked him on the head. In the end, Kile woke up in chains in a prison cell at Spector’s house. The Moon Knight interrogated him for an hour before noticing the raven in the corner, watching them.

The bird shouldn’t have been there, of course; there was no way into Spector’s basement that wouldn’t have been obvious. And Kile recognized it as one of his imaginary friends; the bird no one else could see – except the Moon Knight was looking right at it. The course of their conversation changed then and given a chance to explain, Kile opened up to the superhero about the things he’d been through. Moon Knight removed his mask and undid the chains, explaining that Raven was an ancient spirit; a god older than his own, Khonsu, worshiped as a trickster and keeper of secrets since men lived in caves. As Khonsu had chosen him, Specter believed that Raven had chosen Kile as its champion, and that the necklace was a totemic tether to the spirit’s power.

When the Hand made their move on Diatrice, they were sufficiently defeated by the unexpected team-up that Spector was certain no further attempts would be made against Kile anytime soon. The Moon Knight took Kile’s training to the next level in the following months, grooming him to fill the role of sidekick to the more experienced vigilante. It quickly became apparent that Spector had more to offer the boy than his experience and resources, and Kile was welcomed into his home.

The two have a close but intense relationship – Spector’s unyielding need for control runs counter to Kile’s maverick streak, and the fact that Diatrice maintains more than a passing interest in her father’s protégé is an endless source of tension between them. There’s a genuine bond between the older and younger heroes, but Kile refuses to play “junior Nightman” to Spector’s Moon Knight, and it's become a sore point between them – it’s difficult to take advice from a teacher whose lifetime of tricks you can surpass in a matter of days, and no parent has ever successfully grounded a ninja.

Surprisingly, the bridge between the two has been Spector’s old friend and comrade Frenchie. As Child Protective Services seemed unlikely to approve Kile’s placement with a registered superhero who had a history of mental illness, Frenchie volunteered to be his legal guardian – he only lived in the guesthouse of the Spector estate, and a judicious application of the Spector fortune made that problem go away. Frenchie has been more of a bad-boy fun uncle than a parent, which is just what Kile needs. He’s supported Kile’s independent streak with surplus Moon Knight gear and a steady stream of intel, and he’s really the only person capable of standing up to the Moon Knight. More than Spector, Frenchie gets Kile, and manages to channel his angry impulses in healthier directions.

For the past few weeks, Kile has felt more alive and in control than he has in a long time. He still has rules to live by – he still has to go to school; he can take the Ducati out but has to bring it back with a full tank; no loud music at the mansion between the hours of 6 a.m. and noon; and Diatrice is never allowed over without supervision – but those restrictions buy him the freedom to be vent his wrath on the mean streets, earning his own wings as New York’s newest vigilante, The Raven.

[Black Sam]

NPCs
The Clique. A who’s-who of mean girls and other insufferable teenagers rule Jericho High School, and they unfortunately include Kile as one of their own. He has no idea why (see “Edge Lord,” above), but Frenchie told him he at least needs to pretend to have friends, so he tolerates them. As awful as these kids can be, Kile sees past their bluster and meanness to the wounds they conceal, and he cares about them despite his instinct not to. He used to be like them, after all, back when he and Koken were a thing.

            

The Girl. Diatrice Alraune knows about her daddy’s alter ego but not Kile’s, a condition Spector adamantly enforces. She is madly infatuated with Kile and is far from shy about pursuing him.

            

The Guardian. Jean-Paul “Frenchie” DuChamp often goes out into the field with his white-cloaked buddy, but always in a support role. He’s made himself vulnerable for Kile in a way he never was with Marc Spector, who always made a big target for him to hide behind. With Kile, his relationship is a matter of public record.

            

The Social Worker. David Fortner is unfortunately the nicest guy in the world, and he was shocked when a judge approved the petition for Kile to take up residence on the Spector estate. David also has a talent for checking up on him at the most inopportune times.

            

More Moon Knight cast here.

[Black Sam]

LINES OF EXPERIENCE
TOTAL LOE EARNED: 0 LOE (+5 creation stone)

TOTAL LOE SPENT: 0 (5 creation stones)

EARNED FROM:

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  

SPENT ON:

• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
• 
  
•