ER:Dasuke Kinabalu
From The Heretic Knowledge Vault
A recently deceased NPC in the Errant Road on-line free-form role-playing game. Needless to say, he doesn't, and didn't, exist in the Poe-verse.
This ill-starred fellow was a Tsuirakuan mage who lived in the Tsuiraku-town district of Rinkaiel. He entered the story as an instructor for PC Layla, who's moved to Rinkaiel with her family to learn something about magic. Teaching magic, in fact, appears to be what he is (or was) for; the Tsuirakuans are thinking of opening a warp gate in Rinkaiel, and he had the job of preparing local talent to work at it when it opens. Thus far, however, Layla is the only student we've seen at his laboratory, although it's clearly outfitted in anticipation of more.
He makes the sad transition to "Living Impaired" as a result of a small dustup precipitated by the arrival of PC Rhett with a parcel of uncertain, but probably illicit, contents. (The fact that Rhett's courier service is used to deliver this stuff, when there are perfectly legitimate ways to move things into Tsuiraku-town by way of the Tsuirakuan consulate, suggests there may be more to the late Mr. Kinabalu than meets the eye, and leads to a certain detente between Rhett and the menacing Captain Kitaura later.) Both courier (which happens to be Rhett's last name as well as his occupation) and recipient are relieved of this package by way of a magical mugging using a Binding spell, which prompts a curious reaction from Kinabalu suggesting that he's more interested in saving face than in recovering the goods. Apparently someone doesn't agree with this sense of priorities, however, because when he stomps into an apothecary/eatery where Layla and Rhett (and fellow PCs Jamie and Maya, among others) are taking some coffee, he has an angry conversation in a back room that leads to him being incinerated by a Force Bolt spell. This, it's fair to say, catches Layla's and Rhett's attention.
He's already been replaced as professor at the teaching laboratory by one Lifemage Madori, who blithely dismisses the poor man as "indisposed" and carries on as if nothing out of the ordinary has happened.
