Thorn, Son of Angrahd's page

Money 38 gp, 8 sp, 9 cp

Total weight = 18.5 lb.
Total starting gear value = 81.11 gp

The horsemen rode in the dead of night. On the backs of well trained steeds, capable of tracking wolves by scent, they brandished torches and weapons of silver and sported crowns of fresh wolfsbane upon their brow. Divinations had proved fruitful and they had cornered a small pack of suspected werewolf refugees, rumored to have escaped the recent democide, and gone in to hiding somewhere deep in the Churlwood.

In a foggy creek bed, with their backs to the Lampblack River, the pursued refugees made their last stand. Vehemently denying their lycanthrope heritage, the Ulfen shapechangers never took their animal or hybrid forms, but instead called upon foul Thassilonian Sin-Magic. Invoking the ideal of Wrath, the spellcasters flung dangerous spells composed of force and fire, spewing the curses of the forgotten runelord Alaznist upon their murderous hunters.

While many died on both sides, it was the pious clergy of Old Deadeye that emerged victorious, a precious few of their numbers surviving the destructive encounter. In the wake of the battle, all that remained were the butchered and smoking corpses of the dead, and a single Ulfen boy.

No one can say why the surviving hunters took mercy on the blighted young orphan. Perhaps it was the fact that his parents, while obviously powermad evokers, never took their bestial forms in the battle and denied their cursed nature with their dying breaths.

Not more than ten summers old, the young boy showed no physical signs of his parents suspected affliction. Rather than destroy the innocent offspring of the alleged lycanthropes, it was decided the boy would be raised in the service of Erastil until he was of an age to make decisions for himself. While the boy could only speak Ulfen, he proudly proclaimed himself “Thorn, Son of Angrahd”.

For the next three summers, Thorn was reluctantly inducted in to the strict hierarchy of the Erastil faith. While not forced to worship the nature god, Thorn was expected to do his share of chores, which consisted of heavy farm labor and tending to livestock.

During his time with the faith of Erastil, Thorn grew to be a terrible child. One that almost always shirked his duties, and constantly defied authority. The church elders suspected it was the inherent flaw of his parentage, corrupting his pubescence and subsequently began watching the troublemaking youth more closely.

On the third anniversary of his parents death, Thorn lashed out at his divine peers. Under a full moon, in a heated confrontation with several acolytes, the raging boy transformed in to a full fledged werewolf and in a display of madness, injured many before being captured and restrained in silver manacles by senior clergy.

In the weeks that followed, Thorn remained shackled to a bed and force fed wolfsbane as an experiment to see if they could cure his malady rather than execute him. Unfortunately, while the wolfsbane did nothing to diminish Thorn’s natural lycanthropy, it did slowly poison him, sending him into a deep coma. While in his coma, Thorn experienced vivid dreams of glowing arcane runes and whispers of the untold power of wrath. The mysteries of magic began to unravel in his subconscious.

Somehow after being slowly weaned from the wolfsbane, Thorn fought back from the brink of near death. Tended by druidic nuns, they hung a silver amulet of the Elk Lord about his sleeping neck, in hopes of warding off the evil taint of his werewolf heritage. His coma lasted nearly six months, and on a fateful day in Pharast he awoke with absolutely no memory of his past life, except for his name, and an insatiable appetite for the learning of magic, particularly Evocation. He dismissed his prior disease as fleeting evil spirits, and insisted that he’d been cured.

Thorn suffers from Multiple Personality Disorder, and currently has two personalities; Benevolent Thorn and Hateful Thorn.

Benevolent Thorn is Lawful/Good and worships Erastil faithfully. He has a hunger for knowledge especially when it comes to magic, and is generally good natured. From time to time Benevolent Thorn blacks out and when he wakes he can’t remember what he’s been doing. Benevolent Thorn doesn't know about hateful Thorn.

Hateful Thorn is Chaotic/Evil and Thorn’s original personality. He worships death and blood, and not necessarily in that order. Although Hateful Thorn is a werewolf and is aware of his nature, he knows he is in the company of do gooders, and also realizes that he is not in complete control of himself and as such, rarely takes his animal/hybrid forms. He has discovered a weird knack for spellcasting and for some reason, he finds himself inexorably tied to the malign silver amulet of Erastil hanging about his neck.

In the five years since his awakening, Benevolent Thorn has started an apprenticeship with the Evoker Tauster. He is fiercely loyal to the wizard, but sometimes doesn’t understand why he’s being disciplined for unruly acts he doesn’t remember committing. Meanwhile, Hateful Thorn wants to steal Tauster’s secrets, and hopefully someday unlock the forbidden power of ancient Thassilonian Sin-Magic.