Kairon Daaltin's page

cough

I know I was born in Taldor, but the enclave outside Triela is the only home I’ve ever known. I remember yearly trips to Oppara – not sure why my parents ever left, considering just how folks welcomed them . . . . Anyway, my parents moved there within the first year of my birth. They hunted, and I was supposed to learn. Well, . . . they caught plenty of food. History? Hah. Languages? Ha!! And don’t try to read my writing – you’ll just get a headache. When I used to ask them about why they did it, moving there, all they’d ever say was, “It was best for you, son.”

My closest friend, Ephren, was a joker, a clown, and a rascal. He always had some tricky plan to get stuff. I didn’t help him much with those plans, but I remember eating plenty of rolls swiped from the kitchens, or hams from the smokehouse. He even wrangled up some silver every once in a great while, and we’d sneak off to Triela’s little market instead of working the garden. Asked the brothers and sisters every crazy question he could, just to make a fuss. Lot of fun, he was. Haven’t seen him since midsummer, two years ago.

I’ve always loved magic – still do. I was about 11 years old when I saw my first real magic – weird, right? --; Ephren got hold of some “stick”. I found him out behind the barn waving the thing around, saying some weird word or another. All I saw was some faint, white flash, but I knew what it was. I wanted to try it out, but Ephren was having none of it. I haven’t mentioned that I have an amazing temper, have I? Well, let’s just say that me and Ephren weren’t close after that day – took six years, some heartbreak, and most of a barrel of ale to get things right between us again. I still have that wand, somewhere around here . . . .

huff

Oooooooh. Hm.

I don’t even remember just how it all went down that day. I got a new trinket, lost a friend, and there was a meeting. My parents, all the priests, and a couple of bookish types from town. And just because he said I scared him. But after that, it was doctrine in the morning, magic in the afternoon, and evenings free. I took to it pretty well. I got the silent treatment about the meeting, just like why my parents moved.

I bet it’s got something to do with the fact that I don’t even need that wand. I can just cast that spell, all on my own. Learned what it was good for, too. But there’s something else, too. It was just a little bit before Ephren and I got straightened out -- I broke my arm falling out a second-story window to get away from an angry father in Triela. She was beautiful, okay? When I got back to the enclave, I expected a quick “confession” and a fast heal. But, nope. I didn’t get an sings “AAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaaAAAAA” magic fix – I can use it, but it doesn’t work right on me. Just don’t understand why none of them would tell me what in the Nine Hells was going on. Still won’t.

So me and Easy Ephren got back to right after that – his girl left town just about the same time a town guardsman figured out I was seeing his daughter. And, while I was healing up, I learned something else – I’ve got a knack for medicine. Not sure why that took, when everything else didn’t, but I started helping out while I was on the mend. Got out of the doctrine classes half the time, started working with the healers the other half, still magic in the afternoons. So, for most of the past seven years, I’ve been wrapping broken ribs, stitching cuts, setting bones, making tinctures, and such. Even managed to meet lovers two and three that way. . . . Hey. Hey! I waited till they were out of the infirmary! Big difference between using advantage and taking advantage, okay?

hiccup

Well, six months ago, some thing or another got the priesthood stirred up. Another meeting about Kairon, without Kairon. Are you noticing a trend? Full stop on medicine, magic, and doctrine. The only thing a steel blanket is really good for is sweating under. Well, it’ll stop pointy, slicy, bashy things pretty well, too. All day, every day, getting my head beat by Brother Skayne. When he finally said that I was barely more dangerous to others than I was to myself with all that metal, I was ordained faster than anybody else I’ve ever seen, given some instructions, handed a letter, and . . . .

And I had to get my robes! That fireblasted tailor!!! He charged me the full 6 crowns for that rig. And he had known for a week that they were about to confirm my priesthood. Well, it’s okay. I burned his brightly-painted, brand new sign on my way out of town. Stuck-up deathspawn.

. . . and here I am, on a boat headed upriver, for no other reason than they said “Go”, and I’ve got no idea what it’s really all about.

gags

Excuse me while I go heave breakfast into the river . . . .

Took me months to get this far north.

Once Goruck and I made it back to Almas, the bishop buried me in some ritual room for about 7 days, bread and water only, stuck in a circle of priests chanting nonstop in what I reckoned was Celestial, but I ain't fer sure. Whatever it was they did, it . . . it changed me. I didn't figure it out till a couple days later, though, y'see . . . . Me and Goruck were in the practice yard, drilling blade and shield. I took a bad step when he was comin' down with that huge sword o' his, and I didn't get my shield up in time. Tore clean through my mail, broke my collarbone, knocked me to th' cobblestones in a pool o' my own blood. Hurt so bad I couldn't even start to call on Her for aid . . . . And then one of the freshest initiates dashed out of line and leaned over me, and his magic healed me. Whatever it was that had been there for so long, blockin' out the spells and such, was just . . . gone!! I couldn't believe it -- ol' Fergus, back in Triela, hadn't been able to heal my broke arm with Sarenrae's power, and here this . . . kid! . . . was, patchin' me up faster than I'd ever had call to heal anybody.

Nice ta be helped, and all, but . . . sobered me up, it did. And it got me t'thinkin'.

Didn't take me long to figure out that what had been done had something to do with that wand . . . . I couldn't cast that spell anymore! Couldn't even use the wand!!

The thing that got all this started . . . just didn't matter anymore. Ever since I grabbed that wand offa Ephren, folks had been treatin' me different. Like they knew somethin' I didn't, but they didn't have the guts t'tell me. But now it was like it never happened.

. . .

But somethin' tells me it ain't as simple as it seems . . . .

Anyhow!!

I didn't waste much time ponderin' it, though -- I just started adjustin' to the new way. My time in the Hollow showed me I needed to be better prepared to fight. So I quit practicin' reading all the remedy books and scourin' the herb gardens. I quit tryin' to get the magic, and just kept doin' it -- She provides, so what's to think hard about?? And, quick as a flash, I wasn't as good at scarin' folk as I used t'be; I think that was part o' that ritual, too . . . .

But I started going back through those tumbling drills Brother Skayne used to make me do back home. Found I could handle the weight of lighter mail better -- still wish I'd been able to talk the ol' half-orc inta splittin' that mithral plate with me: that was a nice shell! Coulda had a breastplate made with it! Wasn't long before I was movin' better than before -- not by much, but enough I was faster with the spear, which is good.

In the month before Goruck took a new mission, he started showin' me some tricks about payin' better attention to what was happening around me -- walkin' on paper, blindfolded; breathin' more shallow; changing how I plant my feet when I step; . . . . Paid off! I know where I am better. I can move through a dark room without knocking everything down, now. I can tell ya how many ales are on this bar without turnin' my head.

Help keep me from gettin' ambushed like I did a couple times . . . .

Through it all, I was still helping in the hospital -- hammered thumbs, log-smashed legs, flux, you name it. Still got the touch, even without the books.

And one day I asked what I was waiting around for. Bishop told me they were waitin' on me to leave!! How 'bout that??! So I grabbed my pack and my gear, said a few goodbyes, and just started walkin' . . . .

Long road. Good times.

. . . .

Hey! Whatsa name o' this place again?!

Kairon is a stocky human male with black hair, hazel eyes, and a light tan. He stands 5'8" tall, and weighs 170 pounds. Possessed of a genial nature, the 23-year-old priest regards others in a positive light, until they prove otherwise. From time to time, though, he becomes suspicious of others' motives (especially when actions don't mesh well with his own beliefs, usually when innocents are at risk). As a result, he has repeatedly been guarded with those he should trust; this has led him to some deeply embarrassing moments.

One of his most prized possessions is his shield, crafted by Master Figueroa of Falcon's Hollow. The light steel aegis is enamelled with a yellow-gold sunburst, and the face of a firefoot fennec is superimposed upon the downward-pointing sunrays.

Brother Fergus was the priest back home who couldn't use magic t' heal me after I . . . ummm . . . fell out that gal's window.

My childhood pal. We went through a lot. He left the enclave close to three years ago, and I've had no word since.

My weapons trainer. Old campaigner. Ain't lost much of his edge, despite the years.

12 fire-newt tails, nine dried purple aster flowers, three mint sprigs, two elderwood moss sprigs, pickled rat-tail root, seven dried, powdered ironbloom mushrooms, all steeped in five gallons of holy purified water for a half-hour