Jolon Vulture-Heart's page

1st: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Mystery (Life), Oracle's Curse (Haunted), Orisons, Revelation (Channel), Extra Revelation (Life Link), +1 hit point
2nd: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Mystery Spell (detect undead), +1 hit point
3rd: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Bonded Spirit, Alignment Channel (Evil), +1 hit point
4th: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Mystery Spell (lesser restoration), +1 Charisma, +1 hit Point
5th: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Oracle's Curse (levitate, minor image), Exotic Weapon Proficiency (Bastard Sword), +1 hit point
6th: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Mystery Spell (neutralize poison), +1 hit point
7th: Oracle (Spirit Guide); Power Attack, +1 hit point
8th: Holy Vindicator; Channel Energy, Vindicator's Shield

1. Jolon towers over the average Korvosan, thanks to both his Shoanti and orcish genes, with skin like copper developing the slightest green patina, and dark black hair he keeps short and bound close to his head. His orc-like features are barely noticeable, his amber eyes, large pointy ears and small, tusk-like incisors that seem smaller than those of the average half-orc, just enough to lend a sort of feral handsomeness to his mostly human appearance. His face and torso are adorned with tattoos, including Pharasma's holy symbol on both his forehead and his chest. He dresses in sturdy, simple clothing as he travels through the city frequently, under sturdy steel scale armor. He wears his mother's klar on his left arm at almost all times.

2. Jolon's parents were supposed to hate each other: an orc hedge-knight and not just a Shoanti tribeswoman, but a Boneslayer of the Skoan-Quah. And initially they did, but as they adventured together, they came to respect one-another, and eventually fell in love. Jolon sadly never met his father, as he was mortally wounded shortly after his mother became pregnant with him. His signet ring, the representation of a foolish dream of winning a noble title by his own hand, was all she had left of him.

3. When Jolon was about to become a teenager, his mother went out on some errand he no longer remembers, and was knifed to death in an alley not more than a few blocks from where they lived. To add insult to injury, his father's ring was stolen from her.

4. After his mother's murder, Jolon sought solace in the Church of Pharasma as a lay brother, and soon found that despite his youth, channeling holy power came easily to him and that he felt a sense of pride in slaying the undead who occasionally rose from the Grey District to pester the city. Even if his greater purpose was to avenge his mother's murder, his life didn't feel so empty anymore.

5. Jolon does whatever he can to help the less fortunate of Korvosa, seeing as how he used to be one of them before he joined the Church, lending his healing skill and magic at a local clinic and working with local Shoanti and their neighbors to help ease tensions, while advocating for both legal and social justice in the city. Some joke that he should really be a Sarenite or Iomedaean, but Jolon feels a rightness in Pharasma's worship that those other deities can't match, and a deeper connection to his ancestors and to who he truly is.

1. Reconnect Jolon with his Shoanti roots, overcoming their prejudice at his orcish blood to gain the respect of his ancestors and peers.

2. Obtain a position of respect or authority in Korvosa, overcoming their prejudice against both half-orcs AND Shoanti.

1. Despite being a nominal Pharasmin, Jolon is not an ordained member of the church, and he suspects his divine powers are not from the Lady of Graves, but from the spirits of his own Skoan-Quah ancestors.

2. Jolon's bloodline has been obscured and forgotten by much of the world, but his mother, and by extension Jolon himself, are descended from the hero Koja Eyes-Aflame, a Shoanti shaman and companion of Mandraivus.

1. While he's never met the man personally, Jolon has deep respect for the shaman Thousand Bones, whose efforts in forging peace between the Shoanti and the city of Korvosa he seeks to emulate. His mother often spoke of Thousand Bones like a grandfather or respected elder, even though she had been away from the Skoan-Quah for years. Jolon never learned if they knew each other, but he still holds the elder in awe.

2. The man Jolon despises more than anyone else is Gaedren Lamm, the man who stabbed his mother to death in a mugging-gone-bad. That he's also responsible for the addictions that kill many of the people he tends to in his spare time only sharpens Jolon's anger.

3. Following his mother's death, Jolon sought solace at the Grand Cathedral of Pharasma, who had contributed the funds to have his mother cremated after her murder. After her small funeral with what few friends she had in Korvosa's Shoanti community, he found himself talking with the Bishop, Keppira d'Bear. She offered him some words of consolation that, oddly, was just what he needed to hear at that time. This convinced him to join as a lay brother, and while he's never been fully ordained as a Brother, he regards Bishop d'Bear very much as a mentor.

4. Whenever he can, Jolon volunteers at the clinic of Johan Pauvet, providing medical aid and what little healing magic he can muster to help the patients there. Though the old man was initially leery of such a rough-looking young man helping his patients, his earnestness and dedication to the work warmed Johan to him.

1. The memory that remains strongest in Jolon's mind was the morning when the Korvosan Guard called upon him to identify his mother's body. He remembers weeping despite his best efforts not to, screaming to the heavens in rage at the loss of his father's ring, the last memento of his they had, and ultimately running out of energy and just collapsing to the street next to her body. Even the most hardened guardsman at the scene felt pity for the poor mongrel kid.

2. One of Jolon's happiest memories was when he first called upon the power within him to heal. A man had been run over by a runaway cart in the street, and had been brought to the Cathedral of Pharasma where he'd been praying for guidance. Before any of the brothers could react, Jolon sprang into action, barking orders to them and the people carrying the man to direct them, struggling to keep the man from passing off and applying pressure to his wounds. He cracked the man's mangled leg back into place but knew he was running out of time, as the people around him gasped, cried and mumbled. He shut his eyes and focused his will, silently commanding the man to live, when suddenly, he felt something rush through him, like a cold, clean wind and as he opened his eyes, his hands were suffused in a bright blue light. Beneath them, the man's wounds closed and his breathing calmed. He would live. His family thanked Jolon profusely, and offered him money, which he refused, and looking up, he swore he could almost see figures high above, watching the scene, and felt a sense of rightness emanating from them, as if they approved of what he'd done.

3. Jolon remembers finding his father's ring at a run-down pawn shop in Old Korvosa with a mixture of rage and embarassment. He argued with the merchant about its significance and whether it was stolen and when he learned the name Gaedren Lamm, a name he'd heard responsible for the deaths of many at the clinic, and made the connection to his own mother's death, he let out a terrifying roar of anger that seemed to echo and reverberate through the entire shop, making the old pawnbroker wet himself. Shocked at how the spirits around him seemed to resonate with his anger, he quickly calmed and apologized, swearing on his mother's honor that he'd pay the man in full.

4. A moment Jolon has very mixed feelings about is when he put the combat skills his mother had first taught him and Pharasma's church had him continue to practice to the test, joining a company of Pharasmin clerics in their grim work in the Grey District to keep undead rising from the graveyards contained. It was a fierce battle, and Jolon quickly found his fear and disgust at the desecration swelling in his chest, turning into a righteous rage that strengthened his sword-arm. When the battle was over, he watched as his fellows began re-burying the bodies, as a vulture swooped down from the sky and alighted on a nearby tomb. Such birds usually didn't fly this far south from the Storval Plateau, and the way it stared at him told him it was no ordinary carrion-eater. There was a communion between them, as if the vulture understood Jolon's thoughts, and it lowered its head, almost as if bowing to him. It was at this point that Jolon adopted the honorific "Vulture-Heart," and realized protecting the sanctity of the dead was something he was meant to do.