Underminer
NAME: Jericho Pruitt
AGE: 26
POWERS:
- GEOMANCY -
Jericho has the ability to magically manipulate the earth at will. - MOLE PERSON -
His physical transformation imbued Jericho with several mole-like abilities, including a heightened sense of smell and hearing, and regrettably, extremely poor vision.
For generations, the Pruitt family thrived off of the gold mines that littered their lot of land in the Colorado Rockies. Early in young Jericho Pruitt's childhood, however, the mines dried up, leaving the Pruitts in financial ruin with little hope of recovery. Because of this, Jericho grew up intimately familiar with the mines, spending copious amounts of his free time in them hoping to strike the vein of precious metal that would bring his family back into prosperity. That would unfortunately never happen; over time, Jericho's family came to resent him for his obsession with the mines as he grew into adulthood and failed to contribute in any meaningful way. Rather than focus on education or finding a career, Jericho wasted his life away in the mines looking for gold that simply wasn't there. Something else, though, was.
One evening, on a drunken expedition into a section of the mines that had long since been condemned, Jericho mistakenly knocked down a support wall, which caused a cave-in that left him trapped inside the maze-like tunnels beneath his family's properly, entirely unable to escape. When he seemingly disappeared, his family presumed him to have died in the mines. In reality, he was down under the earth trying to dig his way out. With no visibility, nor a sense of direction, he unknowingly dug himself deeper than anyone had ever gone before. After realizing he was lost, Jericho was ready to give up and accept that he was likely going to die.
That's when he first saw the worms. Wriggling in the earth that surrounded him were a collection of eerily bio-luminescent creatures that resembled large earthworms. With no alternative options for a food source, Jericho found himself consuming these slimy creatures for sustenance. As the days in the caves turned into weeks, Jericho found himself growing accustomed to this new life trapped beneath the surface... largely in part to the way that his body was physically adapting to his new environment, courtesy of the magic-infused earthworms he'd been eating for survival. Before long, Jericho was no longer recognizable; when Jericho finally did find his way back topside, his family mistook him for some kind of horrible mole monster, rejecting his attempt to return to his normal life. With nowhere to go, Jericho fled back underground to contemplate what it was that he had become.
Jericho used the incredible earth-manipulating powers he had acquired to construct a new home for himself deep in the caverns on his family's property, but has since dug an extensive underground tunnel network that extends all across the country, used for hunting the glow worms and facilitating the criminal activities that fund whatever bits of humanity he is able to bring with him down below. More than anything, Jericho just wants to be left alone -- as long as humanity stays out of his business, he keeps to himself as much as possible. The longer he stays away from mankind, however, the more resentment he has towards the surface dwellers for the way they perceive him.