About AksharaAkshara, Female Tiefling (pit-born) Barbarian (Wild Rager) 1/Oracle [Nature] 1
Init +5; Senses Darkvision 60, Low-light vision, Perception +5 DEFENSE
OFFENSE
Melee
Ranged Special Attacks STATISTICS
TRAITS
FEATS
SKILLS (4 + Int Mod) Asterix denotes class skill
LANGUAGES (Illiterate)
SPECIAL ABILITIES
Mystery (Nature):
Each oracle draws upon a divine mystery to grant her spells and powers. This mystery also grants additional class skills and other special abilities. This mystery can represent a devotion to one ideal, prayers to deities that support the concept, or a natural calling to champion a cause. For example, an oracle with the waves mystery might have been born at sea and found a natural calling to worship the gods of the oceans, rivers, and lakes, be they benign or malevolent. Regardless of its source, the mystery manifests in a number of ways as the oracle gains levels. An oracle must pick one mystery upon taking her first level of oracle. Once made, this choice cannot be changed. Nature
Bonus Spells: charm animal (2nd), barkskin (4th), speak with plants (6th), grove of respite (8th), awaken (10th), stone tell (12th), creeping doom (14th), animal shapes (16th), world wave (18th).
Oracle's Curse (Wrecker):
Each oracle is cursed, but this curse comes with a benefit as well as a hindrance. This choice is made at 1st level, and once made, it cannot be changed. The oracle’s curse cannot be removed or dispelled without the aid of a deity. An oracle’s curse is based on her oracle level plus one for every two levels or Hit Dice other than oracle. Each oracle must choose one of the following curses. Wrecker
Effect
At 5th level, whenever you attempt to damage an object with a melee attack, reduce its hardness by an amount equal to your oracle level before determining the damage you deal with that attack. At 10th level, any attacks you make against objects and constructs automatically bypass any damage reduction they may possess except epic. At 15th level, whenever you are dealt damage by an attack with a manufactured weapon, you can require the weapon’s wielder to make a Reflex save (DC 10 + 1/2 your oracle level + your Charisma modifier) to avoid having the weapon collapse into dust immediately after striking you (magical weapons receive an additional saving throw against this effect).
Revelation (Speak with Animals):
Speak with Animals (Ex): Choose a specific kind of animal (rodents). You gain the ability to converse with that type of animal as if you were under the effects of speak with animal. You gain the ability to communicate with an additional kind of animal for every 3 oracle levels you have attained. Rage:
A barbarian can call upon inner reserves of strength and ferocity, granting her additional combat prowess. Starting at 1st level, a barbarian can rage for a number of rounds per day equal to 4 + her Constitution modifier. At each level after 1st, she can rage for 2 additional rounds. Temporary increases to Constitution, such as those gained from rage and spells like bear's endurance, do not increase the total number of rounds that a barbarian can rage per day. A barbarian can enter rage as a free action. The total number of rounds of rage per day is renewed after resting for 8 hours, although these hours do not need to be consecutive.
While in rage, a barbarian gains a +4 morale bonus to her Strength and Constitution, as well as a +2 morale bonus on Will saves. In addition, she takes a –2 penalty to Armor Class. The increase to Constitution grants the barbarian 2 hit points per Hit Dice, but these disappear when the rage ends and are not lost first like temporary hit points. While in rage, a barbarian cannot use any Charisma-, Dexterity-, or Intelligence-based skills (except Acrobatics, Fly, Intimidate, and Ride) or any ability that requires patience or concentration. A barbarian can end her rage as a free action and is fatigued after rage for a number of rounds equal to 2 times the number of rounds spent in the rage. A barbarian cannot enter a new rage while fatigued or exhausted but can otherwise enter rage multiple times during a single encounter or combat. If a barbarian falls unconscious, her rage immediately ends, placing her in peril of death.
Uncontrolled Rage:
A wild rager’s rage functions as normal, except that when she reduces a creature to 0 or fewer hit points, she must attempt a Will save (DC 10 + the barbarian’s level + the barbarian’s Charisma modifier) or become confused. For the remainder of her current turn, she attacks the nearest creature other than herself. On the following round, refer to the confusion spell to determine her actions. At the end of this round, and each round thereafter, she can attempt a new saving throw to end the confusion effect. The rounds during which she is confused do not count against the rounds she has spent raging that day, but she cannot end her rage voluntarily, nor can she use rage powers while confused.
Prehensile Tail:
Many tieflings have tails, but some have long, flexible tails that can be used to carry items. While they cannot wield weapons with their tails, they can use them to retrieve small, stowed objects carried on their persons as a swift action. This racial trait replaces fiendish sorcery. Scaled Skin:
The skin of these tieflings provides some energy resistance, but is also as hard as armor. Choose one of the following energy types: cold, electricity, or fire. A tiefling with this trait gains resistance 5 in the chosen energy type and also gains a +1 natural armor bonus to AC. This racial trait replaces fiendish resistance. Fiendish Sprinter:
Some tieflings have feet that are more bestial than human. Whether their feet resemble those of a clawed predator or are the cloven hooves common to many of their kind, tieflings with this trait gain a 10-foot racial bonus to their speed when using the charge, run, or withdraw actions. This racial trait replaces skilled. Maw or Claw (Maw):
Some tieflings take on the more bestial aspects of their fiendish ancestors. These tieflings exhibit either powerful, toothy maws or dangerous claws. The tiefling can choose a bite attack that deals 1d6 points of damage or two claws that each deal 1d4 points of damage. These attacks are primary natural attacks. This racial trait replaces the spell-like ability racial trait. ------------
Orisons (Unlimited/day)
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APPEARANCE
The garment Akshara wears is a dirt-stained, patchworked creation of quilted cotton boffering and leather. The outerwear is a long jacket about knee-length with leather reinforcement on the back, collar, shoulders and elbows. The remainder of which is densely woven cotton fabric made from patchwork scraps in shades of brown and gray. Below this jacket she wears a pair of leather breeches cut off at the knees to accomodate her inhuman legs and a roughspun shirt of wool that is threadbare in places and looks to have been torn open and sewn shut a few times. BACKGROUND
For most of her youth, the tiefling that would become known as Akshara was raised by a pack of feral dogs in the Barrowood north of Westcrown in the nation of Cheliax. Little more than a feral child, Akshara ran with this pack of dogs, they too strays themselves, the forgotten hounds of a ranger that died in the wood. Highly intelligent and well trained, these wolf-hounds nurtured Akshara as a pup to their pack. Akshara learned their ferocity, learned their cunning, and learned how to use her bestial instincts to survive in the wild. As she grew older, Akshara began to understand the differences between herself and her packmates. Fleeting encounters with travelers in the Barrowood sparked her curiosity that would eventually lead her to the town of Belde. It took two years for Akshara to build up the bravery and confidence to follow loggers back from the forest, to listen to them converse with one another and watch where they went. Akshara never strayed much from the edge of the wood, but a small farm on the forest's edge was enough to elicit her curiosity. The farmstead Akshara found was home to the Northal family, sheep-herders and tailors of little renown. On the first night Akshara crept up to their cabin she spooked the flock of sheep, caused a panic at the farm in fear of wolves from the woods coming hunting. Lohar Northal, patron of the farmstead, never discovered what spooked his flock that night. But his youngest daughter, Maela Northal saw the strange beast-girl from her upstairs room, saw the way her eyes shone gold in the dark. Instead of fear, Maela felt the same curiosity towards Akshara that Akshara felt in return to the human farmers. Over the next few weeks, Akshara would make more forays into the farm to try and watch the family. She would observe Lohar tend the sheep, shear their wool and tend the garden. She would watch his wife Hala tend to her flower garden, watch her sew dresses in fleeting glimpses through the windows at night. Never the wiser that she too was being watched by someone else. Eventually, Maela's curiosity got the best of her. Sneaking away some tablescraps, the young woman not more than a few apparent years older than Akshara would leave food out as bait so that she could lure the beast-girl out of hiding. Maela waited until her parents slept, then brought the food around to the flower garden at the side of the cottage. There, she waits for hours, eventually nodding off where she sat beside the shed. Maela awoke to a noise with a startle, only to see Akshara eating from the tin pie plate full of tablescraps. The pair frightened each other with their sudden reactions, and Akshara trampled off through the flower garden and ran off into the woods. Maela's parents would never know what trampled Hala's flower garden that night, not right away at least. For several months following that day, Maela and Akshara played a game of cat and mouse, each watching the other and daring the other to get closer. Each time ending with a scampering away of one side or another. Eventually, on the eve of winter late one fall, the pair managed to meet without spooking the other. Trust had been formed, whether they were aware of it or not. Maela asked questions of Akshara, who simply listened with wide-eyed curiosity and often while eating a rat or rabbit she'd plucked from the plains nearby. Maela was fascinated with Akshara's savagery and freedom, while Akshara was fascinated by humanity, by words and language and clothes. All the manner of things her pack lacked. Maela also gave Akshara her name, a name born of a few Taldan words knt together to sound prettier than the sum of their parts. To Akshara and Maela, it meant "Gold-Eyed Friend." Over the next few months as the weather grew colder, Akshara and Maela would meet. Maela would teach Akshara simple words in Taldan and Akshara would confuse them more often than not with words and sounds she knew all her own. Maela was never the wiser that the "babble" that Akshara spoke was that of the deepest pits of the Abyss. Together, the two would teach one another; Akshara teaching Maela about life beyond her farm, about freedom and the wilderness, and Maela would teach Akshara the power of words and give her the gift of friendship. As the winter grew colder, Akshara continued to visit. Maela could tell, though, that despite her bestial nature and the thin coat of fur on her body that this winter -- if not all those that had come before -- was wearing her down and too harsh for her to survive. A seamstress in training, Maela labored for weeks to sew a garment without her mother noticing supplies missing, a garment suited for Akshara and the weather. Eventually, after several close-calls on being spotted and a few torn seams it was finished. To Maela's eyes it was a mess -- fur-trimmed leather breeches, a shirt of spun wool, and a patchwork leather and quilted cloth jacket with visible seams reinforced with rawhide stitching -- but she could never be prepared for how Akshara would react to it. On one bitterly cold winter night, Maela presented Akshara with the gift where they had been going to meet in the cold months, her father's tool shed. To Akshara, the rough and often times patchwork clothing made from fabric scraps was unlike anything she had ever behdl before. It was amazing to believe that someone had made something like this with their own two hands, and for her. Maela instructed Akshara how to don the apparel, how to take care of it and showed her how thorns and other brambles would not scrape or cut her through the thick fabric. Akshara accepted the gift with wide-eyed uncertainty and strange emotions of happiness and hope that had never been felt before. It was then that Akshara cried for the first time out of something other than pain. The very next night, Akshara visited Maela with a handful of crow feathers, two small animal bones and a pinecone. They were her expression of a gift, one that represented her world, one that was gathered by her hands. Overwhelmed with the simple naivete and honesty of the gift, Maela accepted the gathering of wilderness detritus and surprised Akshara the next night, having fashioned pieces of it into a charm strung around her wrist. These shared gifts showed a bond that was separated by origin and upbringing, but united by something as simple as empathy. Winter came and went, but the game of hide-and-seek Maela had been playng with her father would come to an eventual but abrupt end. On one night in the spring near a year anniverssary of Akshara's first visit, three wolf-hounds from Akshara's pack followed her to the farm without Akshara being aware. Too distracted by thoughts of Maela, she was unprepared when the members of her pack hopped the fence keeping the sheep penned in and killed one. Akshara and Maela both leapt in to the pen to try and break up what was happening, and try as she might to reason with her kin, the harsh winter had left them thin and hungry, desparate for food while Akshara had been enjoying table scraps and a wood stove's heat on her visits. One of the wolf-hounds in Akshara's pack lashed out at Maela, biting down on her arm and giving her a nasty wound. Akshara reacted without hesitation in a frenzy, pulling her kin off of her friend and frightening it away. Maela's arm was viciously scarred by the attack and the young woman lay crying in the pen, her charm bracelet shredded by the attack. Maela's parents were quick to respond, but when they found Akshara -- covered in Maela's blood from trying to stop the bleeding -- hunched over their daughter they assumed the beast-woman was just another creature from the woods. Farmer Lohar struck Akshara with a shovel and threatened her, scared her away from the farm and chased her off into the woods. Panicked, Akshara ran deep into the Barrowood and hid, not returning to the farm. Lohar had enough, and despite his daughter's protesting that Akshara was her friend, he could not see past her bestial and monstrous appearance. Word was sent into town about the attack, word that spread through the town watch and ultimately to the Paracount in charge of Belde. A hunting party of city watch members and concerned citizens was established and sent out into the Barrowood. For two days they scoured the western edge of the wood, searching for signs of the "beast woman" of Belde. Eventually the hunting party came upon the den of Akshara's pack and put to the sword all of the feral wolf-hounds that she had been living with. Akshara, caught up in that turmoil and still shaken from the events of a few days past snapped when she saw her kin being slaughtered. Something inside Akara awoke at the bloodshed, savagery and cruelty shown by the hunters, and she leapt on them like th ebeast they thought she was. A feral bloodlust filled her, clouded her vision and drove her to fitful violence. By the time the city watch were able to beat her within an inch of her life and subdue her, two villagers and three city watch were dead. In spite of her body count, or perhaps because of it, the captain of the city watch did not kill Akshara then and there. Instead, she was bound and brought back to Belde like some sort of hunting trophy. The last time Maela saw Akshara, she was being paraded through the streets in chains while villagers threw stone at her and shouted calls for a burning. They realized what Maela was too young to: Akshara was a tiefling. Kept in a cage in the basement of the Belde prison, Akshara was spared the gallows or the stake out of curiosity of the Paracount Marcellus Thurvian. A self-professed scholar of the infernal and fledgeling diabolist, Paracount Thurvian was interested in learning more about Akshara and her fiendish heritage. A cruel sort of teacher and student arrangement was made, where Thurvian would indulge in his proclivities of blood-letting and study of the fiendish form under different stresses all while "educating" Akshara on his findings. Scalding hot irons, freezing cold alchemical substances poured on her skin, drops of acid and electrified iron bars were among the tortures she was subjected to as he tried to define her heritage. Akshara's mind was tortured by the knowledge of the things she was born from, demons of destruction and chaos that exist solely to sow dischord and strife. Akshara began to feel as though perhaps this is what she visited on Maela and her family, that perhaps her very nature was little more than a vector by which chaos and death could enter the world. For nearly a year Akshara would be held in the Paracount's dungeon, and the public would be told that the beast woman of Belde had been privately executed after she attacked a guard. Maela had already mourned her friend's death, already started the grieving process, wholly unaware that Akshara was a prisoner less than a few miles from her farmstead. One day, Paracount Thurvian came down into that dungeon not with hook or barb, but with a rolled up piece of paper. He informed Akshara that House Thrune, a name she was wholly unfamiliar with, had requested his assistance in a matter of national importance. That he had sold Akshara to House Thrune to use as they saw fit, and extoled her numerous infernal virtues and strengths. Behind Paracount Thurvian, the black-clad figure of a Hellknight decesnded with a collar, muzzle and chain. Akshara was going away. |
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