Harley "Iron Jaw" is a Seelie Redcap Wilder and a member of the High Castle Crafters Motley in the Duchy of Appalachia.
History[]
Harley's parents were bikers. Before he was six, he had traveled through five southern states and was helping to strip down bikes and rebuild them for more speed. Of course, some of the riders complained that after Harley helped, certain parts turned up missing. He was a weird kid. He could ride a motorcycle by the time he was ten and made metal sculptures from the missing parts that he sold at race meets. Then his parents divorced. Messily. For a while, he was jerked around between the two of them as each sought to foist him on the other.
Knowing that neither one really wanted him, Harley stole his father's bike and left. He scraped out a living by selling sculptures but was finally reduced to life on the street. He had no food and refused to sell the bike (knowing he's only get a couple dollars for it because he didn't have its papers). Picking up a partially empty tin can in an alleyway one day, he started to scrape out the leftover food when the Chrysalis hit him. When he came out of it, he knew two things: he was a redcap and the can tasted just as good as the leftovers inside it. He'd never starve again.
Though he soon met other Kithain, he never felt comfortable in the city because nobody trusted a redcap. When he saw the poster of himself with the "Reward for Information" on it, he took it as a sign that it was time to leave. He went to the mountains. Unfortunately he forgot there weren't too many dumpsters in the hills of eastern Kentucky.
Just as he was getting desperate enough to consider eating the bike, he ran across Lairdie who fed him and plied him with moonshine. His presence triggered her own Chrysalis and Harley stayed with her through her transformation into the boggan she had always been. Unlike the other Kithain he had met, Lairdie seemed to care what happened to him. He stayed. Then Fletcher the Pooka showed up and the three of them moved into High Castle with Cianán and Arienh.
Harley is content for weeks at a time riding along the mountain roads and making his sculptures but then he'll get the urge to wander off. He sometimes takes off and rides cross-country with various motorcycle gangs or disappear for weeks, searching out other freeholds or participating in "grand gross-outs" with other redcaps. He returned from one such venture bearing the grand prize for some contest he refused to disclose: a faerie silver axe treasure. Wherever he goes, though, and no matter how long he's gone, he always returns to Lairdie and his oathmates.
Image[]
Despite his bandy legs (permanently bowed from spending much of his life straddling a motorcycle), Harley projects a compact muscularity. Both his arms and his back are covered with tattoos: everything from skulls to roses to fire-breathing dragons. His lank, black hair is usually greased back and secured with a leather thong. He wears a gold hoop in one ear and his wide mouth seems to contain too many teeth. In his fae mien, his skin is grey and mottled (where it shows) and his teeth are strong and sharp. He dresses in jeans, knee-high boots, and a sweat-stained leather vest. He used to have a motorcycle helmet but hunger one out over legality once and he ate it.
Personal[]
Harley never had much stability in his life but now, all of a sudden, he has a home and a family. Never mind that the home is really a castle built of dreams in the middle of a strip-mined rock an that none of his family is related to him. Even though they've all sworn oaths to each other, he can't shake the feeling that eventually, one of his oatmates will realize he really is a redcap and decide to heave him out of the freehold. He spends a lot of time trying to shock them with gross behavior, just to see how much they can take. So far he hasn't found their limit, though Arienh did throw up once and Lairdie made him clean it up. Though he cares about all of them, he occasionally gets the itch to travel. Here or there, it doesn't matter. He just has to go. He always comes back, though. It's home.
Stats[]
Court: Seelie
Legacies: Wayfarer/Grotesque
Seeming: Wilder
Kith: Redcap
Physical: Strength 4, Dexterity 3, Stamina 4
Social: Charisma 2, Manipulation 3, Appearance 1
Mental: Perception 2, Intelligence 2, Wits 4
Talents: Alertness 2, Athletics 2, Brawl 3, Dodge 2, Intimidation 2, Kenning 1, Streetwise 2, Subterfuge 1
Skills: Crafts (metalworking) 4, Drive (motorcycles) 4, Firearms 1, Melee 2, Stealth 1
Knowledges: Enigmas 1, Linguistics 1, Mythlore 1, Politics 1, Science 1
Arts: Legerdemain 3, Primal 1
Realms: Actor 3, Fae 3, Nature 2, Props 1
Backgrounds: Contacts 2, Gremayre 1, Resources 1, Treasure (silver ax) 3
Glamour: 5
Willpower: 7
Banality: 4
References[]
- CTD: Freeholds & Hidden Glens, p. 20-21