Jureem Pakura

Jureem Pakura (Bagheera Information Merchant) - When in the East, the Bastet say, look up Jureem. He’s got the dirt on everything and everybody you could want to know about. For a price, of course. What would life be like if everything were free? Jureem is an elderly Indian werepanther with an inquisitive manner and a collection of books that rivals some wizards’ libraries.

He actively pursues new stories, gossip, myths and insights, and may be far older than he seems. Although his cat-forms are pretty fragile these days, he’s a spry old guy. Stories say he can become a shadow at will, and often leaves his library in this form to spy on people and creatures all over India. Occasionally, he turns up in other countries; other Bastet have speculated that his library hides magical gates leading all over the world — and possibly to other Realms as well. The tales of his trickery and wisdom are many, and some of the best of them might even be true.

Although this Bagheera is rumored to be over a hundred years old, his body remains fairly limber and strong. His eyes seem to glow a faint blue (though they’re black in full light), and the black fur of his coat is shot with silver streaks. His whiskers are pure white, and he has no hair at all in his human form. Jureem’s clothing depends on his whim: In his library, he often wears a brightly-colored robe or English smoking jacket. When entertaining guests, he dresses in rich Hindu fashions or sharp European clothes. While scouring for secrets, he might be a naked holy man, a young girl, a shadow or a toothless beggar. No matter his guise, Jureem has elevated interrogation and conversation to high arts. He can coax strangers to admit things they wouldn’t offer their closest friends, all the while seeming like a harmless, talkative old man. The secrets he commands are said to be priceless, but many of them can be had at bargain rates…

Trade is Jureem’s lifeblood. The endless amounts of lore he stockpiles have been gathered for the express purpose of trading with interested parties. As the stories go, his estate, a virtual palace buried somewhere in a corner of Bombay, was a gift from a cabal of wizards. In return for a collection of answers, they granted him a mansion that shifts location every new moon. This grand payment is only one of many things Jureem has acquired through his hobby — his collections of rare books, art and sacred scriptures makes magicians and vampires envious. As far as anyone knows, he attains all of these luxuries through trading secrets. Who knows? Each night births a thousand questions. Perhaps Jureem has the answers you seek — and perhaps you have something he’d like in return…