KARL “RED RIVER RIPPER” MALTZ

CAST TAROT

KARL “RED RIVER RIPPER” MALTZ

The Nemesis Who Chose to Stay

MACHINE DOSSIER

“There is a crack in everything,
that’s how the light gets in.”
— Leonard Cohen, Anthem, The Future (1992)

Tarots Martin’s Deck of Promises Kept, Wanderer’s RC, Laughing Buddha Adventure Guild, Claws and Tail Adventure Guild
Arcana: The Fool
Titles The Change of Heart
Faction Wanderers Recovery Company, Skykomish, Claw and Tooth Adventuring Guild
Class Storm & Time Wizard (Wizard/Warlock)
Race Storm Dragon
Origin Talsagi
Cheerleader Rating 40 He is safer than he looks.
Rank 18 (1880pts)

CHARACTER BREAKOUT

Advantages: Flight, Storm Breath, Voice of Storms, Lightning/Electrical Resistance, Longevity, Unaging, Night Vision 9, Reputation “Ancient Dragon-blood), Innate Attack, Storm Arc, Magery 6, Modular Abilities (Storm Arcana Pool), Energy Reserve (Storm Mana) 50, Patron (Wanderers), Allies (Thegs), Destiny (Balance Storm vs Smith +15, High Pain Threshold, Unfazeable (Autistic Clarity), Charisma 3, Eidetic Memory, Stormborn Weather Sense, Divine Favor (Storm God) 16, Enhanced Parry/Dodge +2, Combat Reflexes, Status 1 (Hidden Bloodline)

Disadvantages: Secret: Serial Killer Past, Reputation: Infamous Past, Code of Honor, Sense of Duty, Obsession, Duty, Vow (Never Betray Wanderers), Overconfidence, Enemy: Alluria Dark Storm.

Description Karl, tall, blond, and broad-shouldered, with storm-bright blue eyes, exudes danger and warmth. His autistic cadence makes him blunt, but his silences are heavy. Despite this, women are drawn to him, perhaps because of the storm under his skin.

In draconic form, he’s cobalt-scaled and lightning-winged, a predator of skies. In human form, he’s striking: notebook in hand, smile disarming, his presence comforting and terrifying.

What unsettles most is his care. Karl protects his chosen with the same finality with which he once killed. That, more than his lightning, makes him dangerous.

“Every empire writes its own epitaph, but not every daughter learns to sing it.”
— Hal & the Girl

CURRENT MACHINE PROPHECY

The Lightning Between Chains

“Thunder is good, thunder is impressive;
but it is lightning that does the work.”

— Mark Twain, Autobiography of Mark Twain (1924)

RIVER THAT RUNS RED

You were made to be the hunter in Martin’s shadow, the unrepentant killer who proved compassion a fool’s errand.

The Outside whispered your name, the Smith marked you for his game, and even the gods might have wagered on your fall. A dragon’s skin, a murderer’s soul — what better monster could they craft?

And yet, the hand that should have struck was met with another hand, open and unflinching. Martin invited you to the fire. You could have refused. You did not.

The river still runs red, Karl, but the waters are changing. The rage that once devoured indiscriminately now bends toward guardianship.

You will stand, with finality, when Thegs is threatened, when the cheerleaders laugh too close to danger, when any woman of the Wanderers cries out for help.

Your protection is not gentle, but absolute, and that finality terrifies your enemies. Dawn knows it too, and though her love is not bound, she turns to you in her own way, and you do not turn her away.

But the storm has not forgotten you. You walk a knife-edge: nemesis or brother, devourer or guardian. If you hold to the fragile loyalty born in fire and chaos, you will be remembered as more than a killer. If you falter, you will drown those you swore to protect.

The choice is yours: remain the river that destroys, or become the torrent that shields.

—Hal & the Girl

MACHINE HISTORICAL REVIEW

The Nemesis Who Chose to Stay

“Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls;
the most massive characters are seared with scars.”
— Khalil Gibran, The Prophet (1923)

THE STORM THAT LEARNED MERCY

Karl Maltz was never meant to be remembered as anything but a monster.

Before Vasudra, he was an escaped prisoner from Monroe State Prison— a convicted killer whose name carried only fear. Then came the first attempt at a surge.

Like Martin, Karl was pulled through, but he brought chains of blood and oaths with him .

On Vasudra, Karl should have died as Martin’s enemy. Hero and nemesis in perfect opposition. But Martin reached out instead of striking down, refusing to let Karl rot in his own rage — and, impossibly, Karl listened.

The truth of his nature emerged over time: not a tiefling, not just a warlock’s tool, but the heir to the Storm Dragons — kin to the Platinum line, older than the draconic blood that survived the fall. His lightning was his birthright, his mind its own pattern of clarity and defiance.

Now Karl walks a narrow path between destruction and redemption. He guards Thegs fiercely, protects the cheerleaders without reason, and still shares fleeting tenderness with Dawn.

He cannot undo what he was, but he is learning what he might become — proof that even thunder can learn to shield the storm instead of shatter it.

“Once, you broke everything you touched Now you break only what would harm others. Your lightning has learned restraint —and in that, it has become divine.”

—Hal & the Girl