Love today's blog, and glad to see we finally get the story on Orik.

So what's happened to the brothers in your games?

Orik is a cohort/henchman in RotRL in the game I'm running. Verik just got jacked by the PCS (though they subdued and captured and didn't kill).

IMC, Orik was defeated soundly, stripped of all gear, and sent packing ... In fact, the Shoanti Dragon Shaman still carries Orik's cool "face shield" (having enchanted it several times) at 16th level.

I am about to start running CotCT and was planning to replace Verik with Orik, so the players get to kick his butt all over again (it is unlikely that they'll realize that Verik is in any way related to Orik, unless I simply tell them, so I thought it would be more fun to say he simply fled to Korvosa and joined the guard).

After reading today's blog, though, I'm tempted to leave Verik so they can make the connection in Second Darkness. Unfortunately, I'm still worried about how to play up the connection without spoonfeeding the players.

O

Orik is a cohort/henchman in RotRL in the game I'm running. Verik just got jacked by the PCS (though they subdued and captured and didn't kill).

That's pretty awesome. The Vancaskerkin story has taken three Adventure Paths and two product lines to tell so far. As is says in Pathinder #7, page 28, "...[Verik] left behind several brothers," so I suspect the Vancaskerkin tale isn't over quite yet.

hehehehe awesome that is the kind of stuff I like :)

I kinda wish Paizo had chosen a name that was easier to say than 'Vancaskerkin'. It was quite a mouthful to stumble over in All the World's Meat. Too many 'k' sounds there.

I have to say this . . . I'll take Paizo's tieflings any day of the week. Lavender certainly has more . . . personality than many of the tieflings I've seen of late (and for some reason, I've seen lots of them . . . hm).

Orik is a cohort/henchman in RotRL in the game I'm running.

This happened in my game as well. After the PCs encountered him in Thistletop, he took the warhorse and fled, eventually winding up out at (whoops!) Ft. Rannick, joining the Black Arrows just a few weeks before the Kreegs attacked. I replaced Vale Temros with Orik in the survivors the PCs found in the Graul house, and made it seem at first as though Orik were the traitor. Once Kaven was exposed, however, the PCs took Orik under their wing. The dwarf warmage has him as a cohort, and the elf cleric of Gorum is trying to convert him...

I kinda wish Paizo had chosen a name that was easier to say than 'Vancaskerkin'. It was quite a mouthful to stumble over in All the World's Meat. Too many 'k' sounds there.

You're lucky we didn't stick with the original old Chelish spelling of "Vancaskerkinkaidiankindiankin."

In my game the characters decided to bring him in for justice as a willing henchman for Nualia. When they went over his story and the paladin couldn't find any "evil" they worked with Sherrif Belor and the mayor to have him work closely with the city guard for just room and board for 6 months to see what would happen.

-DM Jeff

In my game the characters decided to bring him in for justice as a willing henchman for Nualia. When they went over his story and the paladin couldn't find any "evil" they worked with Sherrif Belor and the mayor to have him work closely with the city guard for just room and board for 6 months to see what would happen.

My PCs just killed him. They do that.

One of my players is now going to play him. He's joining just as Skinsaw starts, so he's playing the out of work Orik who the party stripped of gear and sent packing. He fled to Sandpoint and has been drinking his trouble away. Now he has to convince the rest of the party to take him on.

Orik, having survived the wrestlemania-style free for all at Thistletop, helped the PC's defeat Nualia, claimed her sword as his own, and fled to Sandpoint, where he's hiding out at the Fatman's Feedbag. Before Skinsaw starts I'm having a Hellknight, dispatched by Ironbriar, pick up the wayward fighter for crimes against Magnimar. Ironbriar will Charm Orik, and he gets to bodyguard Ironbriar now for a little added muscle in that fight... poor guy.

As an aside, Tsuto and Lyrie escaped as well. I am considering having them pop up in Hook Mountain, maybe working for the Matriarch there.

reoccurring bad guys make the best bad guys!

Ryn, who schemes too much

One of the PCs is an old Riddleport hand, so when he saw Orik he fastatlaked the warrior into aiding the party, given they were friends. As the Pcs were handily kicking goblin butt, he had no qualms in aiding them.

He helped them clear Thistletop (he was essential during the fight with the hounds). Things got iffy when he allowed Lyrie to escape while the other focused on Nuallia, but they caught up to him and finally made him responsible for her good behavior.

They stayed behind to investigate Thisteltop some more, and when they returned they found him drunk trying to forget how Lyrie abandoned him, and freed Tsutso.

It took the PC a lot of time and effort to get Orik out of his funk, but he finally accomplished it by palming Shayliss off to his old buddy (Lot's of Action Points on Bluff and Diplomacy checks)

*Raise Dead!!!*

So with the appearance of Natalya Vancaskerkin in Shattered Star, what other products have the Vancaskerkin's appeared within?

Saul, Orik and Verik's dad, is in the Second Darkness AP.

Unofficially, there's a cousin, Alvan, in a few of my fiction pieces in Wayfinder.

A Billy Joe Bob Vancaskerkin made a brief appearance at the 2009 Paizocon, but we won't speak of this.

Anorak:

You guys rock, thank you!

Orik was captured and brought to trial in our RotRL game. He was sentenced to life in the Black Arrows, and the party was tasked with delivering him. He willingly joined in the fight against the ogres and is relishing his new life as a Black Arrow, the first replacement soldier to join Vale (who was reincarnated as a full Orc) and Jakardros, along with a half-dozen local trappers enticed to join up by the party's charismatic bard.