Lestari
Power Level: 13; Power Points Spent: 210/210
STR: +4 (18), DEX: +7 (24), CON: +4 (18), INT: +3 (16), WIS: +7 (24), CHA: +3 (16)
Tough: +4/+6, Fort: +7, Ref: +18, Will: +8
Skills: Acrobatics 13 (+20), Bluff 12 (+15), Diplomacy 7 (+10), Disguise 12 (+15), Gather Information 7 (+10), Intimidate 12 (+15), Knowledge (arcane Lore) 2 (+5), Knowledge (current events) 2 (+5), Knowledge (history) 2 (+5), Knowledge (streetwise) 12 (+15), Knowledge (tactics) 7 (+10), Language 10 (+10), Notice 8 (+15), Sense Motive 18 (+25), Stealth 8 (+15)
Feats: Acrobatic Bluff, Assessment, Attack Focus (melee) 9, Attack Specialization 3 (Grapple), Blind-Fight, Challenge - Improved Acrobatic Bluff, Challenge - Improved Demoralize, Challenge - Improved Feint, Challenge - Improved Startle, Challenge - Improved Taunt, Defensive Attack, Defensive Roll 2, Dodge Focus 3, Elusive Target, Evasion 2, Grappling Finesse, Improved Critical (Martial Arts (Strike 4)), Improved Defense 2, Improved Initiative 2, Improved Pin, Improved Throw, Improved Trick, Improved Trip, Power Attack, Prone Fighting, Redirect, Ritualist, Skill Mastery 2 (Acro, Bluff, Disg, Intim, KN (street), Notice, Sen Mot, Stealth), Startle, Takedown Attack 2, Taunt, Uncanny Dodge (Auditory)
Powers:
Luck Control 1 (force a re-roll; Limited 2 (to attacks against Lestari))
Martial Arts (Strike 4) (DC 23, Feats: Improved Critical (Martial Arts (Strike 4)); Mighty)
Unarmed Supremacy (Probability Control 1) (Minimum Result: 1; Limited 2 (Unarmed Strikes))
Attack Bonus: +9 (Ranged: +9, Melee: +18, Grapple: +31)
Attacks: Martial Arts (Strike 4), +18 (DC 23), Unarmed Attack, +18 (DC 19)
Defense: +18 (Flat-footed: +8), Knockback: -3
Initiative: +15
Languages: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), English, French, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Javanese Native, Korean, Russian, Spanish
Totals: Abilities 56 + Skills 33 (132 ranks) + Feats 49 + Powers 9 + Combat 48 + Saves 15 + Drawbacks 0 = 210
Age (as of Jan 2019): 33
Height: 5’ 8”
Weight: 140 lbs.
Ethnicity: Indonesian
Hair: Black
Eyes: Dark Brown
Theme Songs:
Jinx, by Shwabadi featuring Breeton Boi &
Domino, by Divide Music
Background: Lestari is universally regarded as the World’s Greatest Martial Artist. (She’s actually in second place and knows it, but the real World’s Greatest prefers it this way.) She was a poor girl from Jakarta’s slums. Initially small and weak, she wasn’t good at anything. This was a bad thing, as the other way to get more than the barest necessities was theft. Her older sister took care of her, however, and eventually took her out on theft runs with their crew of friends. Naturally they worked for a local small time crime lord. She remained bad at everything, though, and had terrible luck to go with it. So life was complicated at best. She did eventually find something she was good at. A traditional martial art of Indonesia. Pencak Silat. And not just good, but really good. Beat grown men senseless at 12 years old good. Her sister turned out to be pretty good too. Life was still complicated, but there was less running from the cops and more punching them out. Same with rival kid gangs. But eventually there was a job where her streak of terrible luck couldn’t be allowed. So she was left behind. It broke her heart to be left behind. The job was a trap. A rival small time crime lord had a grudge against theirs, and was making his move to kill them all. Lestari overheard some people talking about it and came running. As usual, her timing was abysmal. A carefully negotiated statemate was broken by her impulsive fist, the scene descended into a general melee, and then the guns came out. There was some old gasoline stored at the location. Several dozen gunshots and melee strikes later, the old gas exploded, destroying the building. There were three survivors. The rival crime lord, who needed a hospital and Lestari and her sister, who did not. They had a verbal blowout, reducing Lestari to tears. Her sister walked just out of sight to cool off, and promptly got jumped by a mob of responding cops. Lestari was suddenly alone in the world. It was emotionally devastating in a way that words fail to describe. She wasn’t just orphaned, she was apparently abandoned.
. . So she turned to the only thing that she had ever been good at. The martial arts. She needed to eat, and pay for minimally acceptable accommodations. Underground tournaments. Being a hired fist. Her skills improved through experience and training until she was the uncrowned best at Pencak Silat in all of Jakarta. She was a legal adult now. She could go wherever she wanted, and she had the spare cash to do it. There was just one problem. Her sister had just been released from prison. Pencak Silat is not a martial art known for its restraint. It’s violent and nasty, aiming to put the opponent down, period. And the strength of a child pales before than or a teenager or adult, to say nothing of the skill difference. So before she was even of legal age, Lestari had blood on her hands. And it apparently didn’t bother her at all. Reuniting with her sister turned out to be a very complicated endeavor. To make a very long and very bloody story short, they became superhero and archnemesis. Lestari was the villain to her sister’s hero, but in some ways it was like the days of their childhood. Traveling around learning various martial arts and fighting over Lestari’s illegal activities. It could not, of course, last. After one final confrontation, her sister simply gave up on her. She’d been doing her best to shield her from other professional superheroes, to get Lestari to stop before things got completely out of hand. But Lestari wouldn’t stop, and her sister walked away. It was now open season on Lestari.
. . This was a terrible thing. For the superheroes. And law enforcement. And, occasionally, military forces. Traveling and training. Traveling and training. Everyone thought she had powers. She did not. Assassin. Bodyguard. Trainer. She had many jobs, and left a legion of broken bodies in her wake. Some would heal. Others were only fit for burial. She climbed the ranks and became number three of the list of world’s greatest assassins. Directly behind Bladesman and Dewstar, a duo so infamous targets who knew one of them was coming occasionally committed suicide as there was no point in trying to avoid them. There are rumors that she bore a daughter when she was still quite young, yet there has been no sign of the child since. The only ones who know the rumors are true are Lestari and her sister. In a vanishingly rare defenseless moment, Lestari gave the girl up for adoption. The girl would be entering her teen years as of 2019.
. . She isn’t exactly a full member of The Cult of The Light. They’re not fool enough to trust a living jinx and casual murderer with details of the inner workings. She is, however, their primary fist. She removes people that The Cult deems an obstacle to their success. Please note that these decisions have precious little to do with the actual desires of The Light himself, as Lakis Hasapis purposefully has as little to do with the organization he inspired, no matter how hard they try to supports his efforts. And yet…Lestari’s deadly limbs function just as well as his ThanaNote. She’s only still alive because she abandoned her last name years ago and it is thus unknown and because she’s useful in this way. She remains the only person directly connected to The Cult to have actually met Lakis (disguised and under a throwaway alias). They remain in periodic contact.
Powers & Tactics: Lestari has no superhuman powers of any kind. She has no special devices. No incredible feats of borderline superhuman training to call on. She doesn’t even use Chi. She is simply one of the finest martial artists to ever draw breath on the face of the world. Pencak Silat (an Indonesian martial art) was her base, and she’s the finest practitioner since the age of mythology. Her traveling has seen her train under and surpass a legion of teachers in various Wushu styles, Wing Chun, Taekwondo, Taekkyon (Taekwondo’s predecessor and source), Karate, Jujutsu, Judo, Aikido, Muay Thai, Kalaripayattu (an Indian striking and grappling martial art), Kick Boxing, and Boxing. She is beyond a prodigy, capable of outclassing entire dojos of expert fighters with minimal effort. Her reflexes, timing, and technique are beyond superb. Her striking power makes observers think she’s superhuman, crushing organs and shattering bones. She’s a master of the kind not seen in centuries. It’s genuinely incredible how talented she is.
. . Regarding her status as a living jinx, this isn’t a power of any kind. There is nothing supernatural about it. A startling array of coincidences and poor decisions by others leads her to make the worst possible decisions for said others and their plans because she lacks necessary information. As such, she almost always does the exact wrong thing at the exact wrong time, and the situation snowballs in hellish fashion. Everything goes wrong, blood is spilled, people go to prison, but she walks away relatively unscathed though her own skills. A living, breathing jinx, yes. But an entirely mundane one.
. . Tactically, well. There’s not a lot to work with as far as versatility. She’s as pure an unarmed fighter as it gets. With that said, she won’t even bother fighting anyone with less than a +12 melee attack bonus. Those who have attempted to force the issue have rapidly found themselves needing emergency medical attention. Or burial. She has Assessment and a godly Sense Motive bonus to figure this out with. Said bonus also renders her effectively immune to feints of all varieties. Speaking of feints, she has all three ways to render her opponents flat-footed, and at Improved level. She’s also a very skilled grappler. Improved Trick and Redirect can be very amusing, as crowds of would be do gooders beat each other up. What she isn’t is stupid. She knows she’s only human, and uses her skills at Stealth and Disguise to disappear at need. She does enjoy a good fight, but generally she’s there to do the job she’s been hired to do, and disappear when it is either completed or no longer possible to complete. Be it killing one person, protecting another’s life, supervising martial arts lessons among the criminal element, etcetera. She has been known to use weapons, but they’re temporary Equipment grade, used to give herself a handicap for her own amusement. Strike 1 to 3 with the Mighty power feat. If it’s a blade, it also has Improved Crit 1.
Personality: Lestari has an absolute serenity about her. She’s always outwardly calm, but in the deeply disturbing way. She speaks softly, and only raises her voice to be audible over surrounding noise. Such outward placidity is genuinely unnerving at times. In regular situations she’s unnerving enough, but she’s exactly the same when beating someone to death, on the run from law enforcement, or dodging a hail of gunfire. It’s like nothing matters to her, which is demonstrably untrue. Nobody trains as hard as she does in as many martial arts as she does without caring deeply about at least improving one’s skills. She has been known to smile gently in the middle of particularly ferocious action or in combat with an foe she has deemed worthy. And the cold, dead eyes of her displeasure are feared among those who have seen them and lived. The truth, known only to her? She broke. Way, way back when she was a child. Guilt, grief, and despair at being abandoned by the only person in the world who meant anything to her triggered a unique combination of schizophrenia and derealization disorder that’s only deepened and gotten stronger with the passage of years. She sees herself as someone portraying the villain protagonist of a martial arts movie/television series. As such, the world around her (and the people in it) are fictional. They can’t be killed for real, only removed from the ongoing narrative. And as a villain, she must be a good foil to the heroes who guest star. If they’re genuinely interesting, she’ll leave them alive so they can become “recurring cast”. She doesn’t discuss it in such terms, obvious, as she’s “in character”. Obviously, she isn’t playing the role 24/7. Martial arts movies and TV don’t dwell on people sleeping, eating, using the toilet, etc. Such mundane activities are done more or less on autopilot, leaning harder of the dissociative side of her mental illness than the schizophrenic. Because Lestari isn’t allowed to be real anymore.
. . Lestari isn’t really someone heroes can save. At least, not within the average campaign’s timeframe. She’d require a lifetime of medication, therapy, and monitoring. And that is assuming she could even be convinced or made to realize she had a problem in the first place. It’s much more likely that the ol’ “beat up and then imprison” approach is the one most heroes would take. Specifically because it’s very unlikely they’d realize she was anything other than a sociopathic murderer and even if they did some heroes will be like “cool motive, still murder”. The wild card in all of this is her daughter. She hasn’t seen the girl in over a decade, but she loves her dearly. That tiny girl Lestari remembers is the only person in the world who is not fictional, and thus may be the only person in the world who may be able to reach the wounded little girl tired of being a
nasib sial.