Sekteth's page

(0 + 5 + 5 + 3 + 7 + 0 = 19, +2 Wis, -2 Cha)

+2 Wis, -2 Cha, Medium sized, 30 ft. speed, Sensory Control, 1/day contact, lesser telekinesis, sense thoughts at character level, always have access to complex psionic spells

Proficient in Simple Weapons, Light Armors and Shields, +1 luck bonus to AC if attacked by ranged weapons containing wood, Lifesong (full round action to heal 1d8+2 hp by touch, 3 / day), access to all Simple spells

Runecaster (if cast standard action spell as full round action, foe must use Int modifier instead of Con/Wis/Dex mod to save against the spell), Unique Spell (awaken nature's favor)

Cantrips 3/day – detect magic, lesser repair, unique spell
1st spells 1/day – mudball (sap instead of mud?)
contact, lesser telekinesis and sense thoughts as SLA 1/day

Sfiri

Languages: Common, Verrik, Draconic
Skills (4 (class), +1 (Int), +1 (favored class) 6):
Bluff (Cha) 0 (+0),
Climb (Str) 0 (+0),
Concentration (Con) 0 (+2),
Craft (alchemy, Int) 0 (-)
Craft (woodworking, Int) 1 (+5),
Disguise (Cha) 0 (+0),
Heal (Wis) 1 (+7),
Knowledge (arcane, Int) 0 (-),
Knowledge (nature, Int) 0 (-),
Knowledge (runes, Int) 1 (+5),
Knowledge (Verrik, Int) 0 (-),
Perception (Wis) 1 (+8),
Sense Motive (Wis) 0 (+3),
Speak Language,
Spellcraft (Int) 1 (+5),
Survival (Wis) 1 (+7),
Use Magic Device (Cha) 0 (-)

Halfspear (1 gp, 3 lbs), 2 Daggers (2 gp, 2 lbs), Chain Shirt (+4 armor, 100 gp, 25 lbs, +4 MDB, -2 ACP, 20% ASF), heavy wooden shield (7 gp, +2 shield bonus, -2 ACP, 10 lbs), Backpack (2 gp, 2 lbs), Bedroll (1 sp, 5 lbs), Rations x5 (2.5 gp, 5 lbs), Waterskin (1 gp, 4 lbs), Flint & Steel (1 gp, -), Signal Whistle (8 sp, -), Belt Pouch (1 gp, ½ lb), Witchbag (5 gp, 3 lbs)
Alchemist’s Frost (20 gp, 1.25 lbs), Alchemist’s Fire (20 gp, 1.25 lbs)

Encumbrance (Lt 33 lbs, Med 34-66 lbs, Hvy 67-100 lbs): 60 lbs carried
Cash Spent: 163.4 gp, Cash Remaining: 36.6 gp
Favored Class: Witch

Sekteth is a scholar of the wilderness, sensing great power bound up within the living world, and wishing to find new ways to tap it. While his training focussed on doing so in ways that complement the living world, his own specific line of research has caused him to be regarded with wary eyes by his tutor, as he has drawn upon the potential life-force of a great tree, tapped from a simple nut, to enhance another's fortunes, at the cost of withering and blackening the seed, eradicating that great potential for a small temporary benefit. He does not see the harm in this simple act, as the trees produce many hundreds and thousands of nuts and seeds and fruit more than they need to reproduce themselves, but he is aware that he tread a dark path, and has turned his thinking to less perilous lines of study, shaken somewhat by the disappointment of his mentor.

He has learned the song of life, in part as penance for his earlier offense, and feels a strong connection with the Green when he invokes it's power, which he considers a sign that the Green, at least, has forgiven him, and even accepts his works, unlike his flesh-and-blood peers.

He veers dangerously between justifying questionable actions, and having the best of intentions, and his mentor hopes that the acorn of insight and perception he has displayed someday unfurls into the tree of wisdom.

Sekteth was born in a farming village south of Xavel, on the foothills of the southern Elder Mountains. The village of Kaisheq was an austere place of stone and adobe, built into rugged terrain, and the original human residents were a mixture of nomadic plainsmen and goatherders, who used the sheltered cliff-dwellings as shelter from seasonal weather or hostile neighbors. Centuries later, a group of Verrik philosophers and ascetics founded a monastery atop a high plateau, and a small permanent village formed at the base of the plateau, to service the few needs of the monastery (mostly settled by the humans who had helped build the monastery). Over the course of many generations, a growing Verrik population accrued within the village as well, and the locals became renowned for the fine wines and mead they produced from the vineyards that soon swept over the surrounding hills, being one of the few crops that thrived in the locale climate (along with figs, dates, etc.). The residents of the scholarly retreat alternately shut themselves away from the more worldly concerns of those below, or openly embraced their fellows, depending on the moods of the times (and the whims of the prelates and scholars within), but the governance of Kaisheq never had any real connection to the leaders of the scholars in the mountain retreat, until a generation before Sekteth’s birth.

Mallar Sek, a magister of uncommon insight, and dubious ethical standing, developed a technique unique to himself that allowed him to maintain a low-level form of psychic contact with a person for days, instead of just moments, and proceeded to use this new technique to stifle any qualms about the risks of such a connection. Using uncanny insights into the moods and psyches of those around him, as well as the ability to subtly influence the feelings of others through this connection, he grew to a position of authority within the community atop the retreat, and those who dissented found themselves not merely shouted down, but forced into quiescence, their own doubts quashed by the will of their peers, with the original researcher, Mallar Sek, the master of them all.

Not content to be the dominant personality in this group-mind, he began to spread his influence into the village below, and the human population, who had spent generations working alongside their Verrik neighbors, found themselves treated as second-class citizens, as Verrik they had known all their lives became strange and distant, speaking and acting as one, subsumed into a singular malignant personality that existed within a hundred bodies, and hungered for more...

While humans could have been as easily incorporated into the effects of the spells, Mallar Sek considered them unworthy to bring into the glorious being he was becoming, and instead focused on advancing the successes of the Verrik populace over their neighbors. Mallar Sek, convinced now that he was on his way to becoming a god-emperor of sorts, took many ‘wives’ from the local Verrik populace, with no regard whatsoever for whether or not they were already married or had previously been in love with others, suborning their will to his own, and siring a fairly impressive amount of children by these emotionally enthralled ‘wives.’ In later years, he would discover that his children were even *more* susceptible to his manipulations, and that by influencing them even as children, he would not merely be steering their personalities in directions of his choice, but preventing them from ever truly forming in any natural or healthy manner. His children would grow up with no lives or feelings that he had not grown within them, unable to break free of his control. As his favored vessels, these children could quickly be seen to take control, and serve as his lieutenants, conveying the instructions of Mallar Sek in monotonous tones, appearing more like puppets than children, and sitting around like discarded dolls when their father’s attention was elsewhere, in some extreme cases all-but unable to act of their own volition.

Sekteth was born to a mother whose name he does not know, as the wives of Mallar Sek were given no names of their own, but recognized by a joint title. He was only eight years old when Mallar Sek died, presumably of natural causes, as none who could actively plot against him ever came within a mile of his physical body, and an entire generation who had no awareness that they even *could* plot against him surrounded him at all times. The community fell apart, with many Verrik having grown unable to act of their own volition (and some never having developed the talent, having been manipulated since birth), and others becoming dangerously independent and contrary, over-sensitive to any perception that another’s words or actions could be influencing them or manipulating them in some way. Fields lay untended, and goats wandered the vineyards, eating as they wished, while blood-relatives rediscovered each other, and others hid in caves, and still others simply lay down and died of neglect, either unable or unwilling to perform such simple acts as eating and drinking.

In the worst instances, the children of Mallar Sek were remembered as vessels of his cruelty, and were persecuted or even found slain. Others fled, to avoid such a fate, as even in the best cases, the children, naturally sensitive to the feelings and moods of others, like all Verrik, felt the distrust and hostility of their fellows. Sekteth himself was gripped by contrary moods, driven by a need to prove his independence from the control of others, or the legacy of his tyrant-father, but upon attempting to reconcile with his mother, herself recovering from decades of psychological and emotional manipulation, and unable to force herself to consider this child that was forced upon her as ‘family,’ he turned instead and left Kaisheq forever, along with a half-dozen other surviving half-brothers and half-sisters. Most chose names far from their fathers, wishing to escape his legacy, but Sekteth choose to retain a fragment of that, unwilling to feel shame for crimes that were not his own. No matter what a monster his father had become, the man was a brilliant scholar of magic, far advanced in the matters of the mind, and while Sekteth has chosen to not engage in the training of the Mind Witches, he refuses to lie about his parentage or deny where he comes from, as he feels that it would be more dangerous to bury and forget the misdeeds of his father than to accept and understand them.

Knowledge (verrik) DC 10 to have heard of Mallar Sek and the village of Kaisheq, although the stories suggest that Mallar Sek manipulated the community through non-magical means. Knowledge (verrik) DC 15 to know how bad it got and that Verrik mind-magics were involved. Also DC 15 to note that Sekteth is a name suggestive of a child of someone famous named ‘Sek.’ Verrik don’t often take on family names in this manner, but do on occasion, or to honor famous Verrik of the past. Since nobody (sane) would honor the memory of Mallar Sek, the only reason someone would have that name is if they are a descendent of the ‘Tyrant of Kaisheq.’

DC 10 Int check to have heard of Kaisheq as a source of wines and meads.