Benedetto's page

"Colvare. Any idea who might have just taken a fall? Sounded like a man, but who knows?"

Benedetto replies quietly "Well, I'm tempted to simply call out to see if the feller in the hall is okay, but that don't seem to be the way things are done in Sharn. Let's see what those folks up front notice."

"What's that? Ah'll have a look. Ye comin' or what?"

Urthona is already on his way to the point of origin of the sound.

Listen check: 14

Benedetto turns towards the noise and is amazed at the way a half-dozen people more or less spring into action. He looks at the room tactically, determines where he'd do the most good defending the place against a raid*, and moves there.

*My guess: next to the unarmored man readying a spell. Benedetto moves alonside him, and says, quickly and quietly, "Hey there. Name's Benedetto; folks call me Ben."

"Waitin's not ma best virtue. Seems the Church will not give any new jobs tonight. Least they'll close up in five minutes. Then Ah'll be able to get back t'my old job."

Benedetto nods,

pauses,

and asks very solftly, "What sort of a church job was you 'spectin' at a museum? Why not meet at the church?"

The lanky young man pauses again, looks around, bites his lower lip, and takes a deep breath.

""Course, you might be askin' me the same question, in regards to the university. Let me ask you, if you were a professional, hirin' guards for an expedition, would you turn up late, just t' see what happens?"

Benedetto wanders casually over to the shifter.

"Howdy. Excellent job o' waitin' you're doin' there."

Benedetto's posted, description, background, stats, and all.

And he really does come off as a hick at first impression.

Hmm, fellow comes for a swamp where he lived with the Munsters and only recently came to civilisation - are those really appropriate skills?

Nobility -- good point.

History? Everybody's got history. He doesn't know a lot of local culture, but he knows as much as any well-educated Marcher would about Khovaire.

and Rayne, Urthona and Benedetto might be following up leads as muscle on some potentially dangerous expedition to Xendrik.

There are other kinds of Xendrik expeditions?

(by the way - do they have any Knowledge skills that might be relevant, at least for flavour, like History?)

I know you weren't asking after Benedetto here, but he does have a couple of ranks of Knowledge (history) and Knowledge (nobility) each.

My personal recommendation? Freedom and Guardian.

Agreed, as the one with 5HP, no armour, and no death wish, I think this is a good idea. Will you be my friend?

Good thoughts, thanks. I think Deception and Guardian is a better combination for those purposes, but I'll be picking up a couple ranks in Ride, to increase the PC's battlefield mobility.

Benedetto is still cagey around any Gatekeepers he encounters, even in the Great City. The flayerspawn heritage of the villages is a very poorly kept secret, and there are tell-tale signs (certainly not referred to as "that Innsmouth look") that rouse Gatekeeper suspicions.

Aubrey, can a character register as a bodyguard in Sharn (perhaps with a few ranks in the corresponding Profession skill)?

(Oh, and Aubrey, he's an Ardent now, no longer a Divine Mind.)

What you are proposing is that your psionic powers emerge from mixture with Dragon Below/Xoriat/mindflayer/bonkers stuff, rather than from contact with the kalashtar. That would be a good reason (and one I didn't think of) to have psionic powers outside of the whole kalashtar/Inspired thing, and could easily make you Khorvaire-based.

How about somewhere in the Shadow Marches - lots of Dragon below there?

Works for me. I'd still like Benedetto to have moved away from his home village to avoid being noticed and hunted down by some good-guy patrols.

Still soliciting opinions on beginning mantles and skills.

Okay. I have a rough framework for Benedetto.

Human (Adar). There are a handful of remote villages there (certainly none are called Innsmouth) where some the populace, at adolesenece, manifest creepy psionic powers, and at age 18 turn sickly mauve, sprout tentacles, and develop a taste for brains. These poor souls are tolerated (even, in some cases, envied) among the villagers, but ruthlessly pursued by both the Inspired and the kalashtar.

Benedetto is from one of those villages. He was 17 years old when he developed two psionic mantles. The kalashtar patrolled nearby and often. It was time to give the family one last hug and move on. And he's kept moving, until he found Sharn.

He's an Ardent, a character who can hold his own in combat (simple weapons, good armor, cleric BAB) and who has two "mantles" (suites of power based on total committment to philosophic study). Not as powerful as a psion or wilder, but that's probably okay.

I'm asking for input as to which mantles you guys think will fit in best in the party. Suggest two of the following five:
[list]

Communication good at diplomacy and mental enchantments

Deception displacement and fool-the-sense powers

Freedom fast movement, escape graples and confinement

Guardian bodyguard and attack-nerfing abilities

Mental Powers mind thrust, id insinuation, direct mental assault powers.

I'm going to have Intimidate on my list of class skills, and some extra points. Do we have that skill covered? Are there any that we need to reinforce?

So, I see:

...=? - Human or Elan Divine Mind - Chris

I know nothing about Divine Minds, so looking at the others:

Eight characters, including probably 3 melee fighters. Looks like two blasters. A cleric (who can do backup melee) and a beguiler. "Face" and trapsmith by collaboration.

Wow, I think we done good.

The working name for the character is "Benedetto".

The Divine Mind is sort of a psionic variant on the ranger mechanics. It's mostly a stand-up fighter in the first four levels, and develops more powers ("mantles") starting at level 5. Allies in very close proximity share in some "aura" benefits.

Given that we already have a fighter, monk, barbarian, and cleric, should I try for more of a "battlefield control" class, like Psion or Wilder?

Elans are an immortal, artificial race, made from human volunteers. In the EPH, Elans make themselves. Does anyone have an opinion on who could be making them in Eberron?

when I was assembling the character last night, a third option was a human with illithid heritage feats, who'd eventually start to grow tentacles out of his mouth.

Again: thoughts?

Do I recall correctly that we have someone with connections to one of the Dragonmarked houses? Does the party have a character with nobility connections yet?