DM Duke's RotRL - Burnt Offerings (Inactive)

Game Master DukeRuckley

Description
In many ways Skorabor resembles the mountain rock of his ancestral home. He’s stocky, sturdy and has rough features. He kind of looks like a boulder, a heavy armored and armed boulder with a two small eyes surrounded by a vast ocean of blonde beard and a big nose that brings it all together.
Skorabor is in fact seldom seen without his suit of armor and at least one axe. At a formal dinner or while taking a casual stroll, it matters not to him. The truth is that he’s actually quite self conscious and as such wants to look his best at all times, combing his beard and hair and keeping his gear in pristine condition.

Background
As the son of Kargunt and Eldagina Boulderback, Skorabor was born with a silver spoon in mouth. The Boulderback family name has always carried weight in Stoneshire, a stronghold and dwarven settlement in the southern Kodar Mountains. But it also carries great expectations. The Boulderbacks can lay claim to numerous dwarven heroes in their ranks, from Ewinflug Boulderback who’s greatest feat include slaying a purple worm single handed to Dwalkrin Boulderback who led the defence of Stoneshire for 200 years. Some claim that the Boudlerbacks are descended from Torag himself! Raised with the stories of his ancestor’s legacy Skorabor grew up with one goal in mind: to take his rightful place among the heroes of his clan.

He spent most of his childhood re-enacting the heroic tales of his ancestors, always insisting on being the hero. As the eldest son of the current Warlord of Stoneshire, Skorabor began training with arms at an early age and showed great talent for battle, if maybe abit showboating, and was constantly eager to learn more. His only setback was that he seemed to be abit slow and lacked cunning and tactical insight, something that was a somewhat of a letdown to his father. Unawares of this Skorabor happily continued his training and eventually he earned himself a place in the Stoneshire royal guard.

His appointment to the royal guard filled him with pride and confidence that he was on the road to greatness. But his merriment was cut short only a few weeks after his promotion. One night he overheard his parents talking and his father voicing his concerns over his slow witted son. Skorabor couldn't believe his ears and his heart sank like a stone. He idolized his father and the thought that Kargunt Boulderback, the warlord of Stoneshire, had doubts about him cut him deep into his soul.

Heartbroken Skorabor decided that he would prove his father's doubts unfounded. He would go out into the world and make his own legacy. That night he left a letter explaining his decision to his family and left Stoneshire determined not to return until he had preformed feats worthy to be included into the Boulderback family journals.

Skorabor spent the following months wandering in search for his great adventure, but to his disappointment finding none. The further he travelled the more disillusioned he became until he finally crashed in the coastal town of Riddleport, and to support himself he took up employment as a guard at a gambling hall called "The Golden Goblin". The town's lack of morals weighted heavily on the dwarf's shoulders and tore at his psyche, but fortunately his luck was about to change. One night, during one of his routine "throwing out the drunks", Skorabor learnt of a group of explorers whose mission it was to scour Golarion for legends and lost places and artifacts. The group supposedly financed numerous journeys to all parts of the earth and could count all kinds of heros to their rooster. If there was a sure way to find adventure, this group was surely it. The group was called The Pathfinder Society and held a "lodge" (probably similar to a clanhold) in a city called Magnimar, across the Varsian Gulf. Renewed Skorabor immediately gathered his belongings and went to the harbor, looking for a ship to take him across the sea. Sadly the dwarf in all his eagerness made a poor job scouting the docks and booked passage on the first boat going "across the Varsian Gulf", unknowing it would take him to a little town called Sandpoint, instead of the city of monuments. Now some time after Skorabor stands on the small docks of Sandpoint, ready to embark on his great adventure.

Personality
Skorabor Skalfgrin Boulderback is a curagous young dwarf who has, like his ancestors before him, been educated in the Boulderback clan’s glorious past and present since the cradle. He is immensely proud of his heritage and sees himself as a natural hero and a champion for good and justice. He is in a way his own biggest fan.

Even though Skorabor would never intentionally go against the morals he believes in his slow wits (one could go as far as call him down right stupid without being far off) makes him quite easy to deceive and manipulate.

He carries a walking stick, etched with Shoanti symbols and decorated with a few beads, a leather grip, and some feathers as well.

On his back is a very nice looking longbow. Its name in the common tongue would be "WhisperTalon". Hawkeye would eye you down if he thinks you are appraising it.

Background:
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Under a fullmoon, one full moon cycle since they found the Roc eggs, at almost exactly at what the civilized world would call midnight, Hawkeye was born.

Only one of the eggs survived this cycle and on this night the roc egg hatched as well. Mirrah, the Shaman's predictions came true but this omen was of good and bad for all.

For on this night Hawkeye was destined to be born heralds a new, rising age of darkness. "He who hunts for pleasure without mercy", the monster of a myth passed down for ages and ages, is said to stir from his slumber and awake during this peak of this darkness. It is said he will kill every living thing on Golarion and turn the mountains into sand.

Raised to respect the wilds, but also a keen hunter, Hawkeye was known for his affinity for the symbol of his people, his sense of perception, instinct, and wisdom. He excelled at archery and the druidic secrets so well he was gifted on his 18th name day with a majestic longbow.

It is custom that during one's 18th nameday, you may venture forth with the blessing of your tribe, to adventure and see the world and the gifts the great feathered one gives to all.

Hawkeye arrived at Sandpoint with a caravan heading towards the Swallowtail Festival and took room in the Rusty Dragon Inn.

Jack was actually quite capable as a lamb, intelligent, charismatic, and more than a little bit of a smart-ass. This would get Jack in trouble, but then he would turn around and have what Gaedren needed before Gaedren knew he needed it. It wasn't till his 11th year, the year the dreams started, that Jack left Gaedren's service.

Jack had been sent out on another thieving mission, to go find some random bauble that might fetch a handsome price. His pickpocketing had turned up nothing, but while scrounging the dumps (as sometimes things were accidentally discarded that were worth quite a lot), Jack came across a peculiar necklace. It was tarnished, but when polished showed a mask with one side of black, the other of white. It didn't take him long to find the temple of Nethys and he stayed and listened to the sermons of the High Priest all day. When he returned to Gaedren and gave him the holy symbol, Gaedren flew into a rage. Gaedren smashed the holy symbol and beat Jack senseless. The next day he limped as best he could to the Temple of Nethys, and took shelter with the priest and acolytes.

It was during this time that Jack was training that he explained his vivid dreams to his tutor. Always it showed magic flowing into Jack, filling him with power and transforming Jack into something...else. The tutor grew quite excited, and Jack was locked away for several years in intensive lessons. Now Jack has completed his training, and would kindly like to talk to Gaedren with his fists. Unfortunately, Jack's tutors recognized this desire and sent him to Sandpoint to finish his training. He has been there for the past year at the small temple of Nethys in Sandpoint.

str: 10
dex: 13
con: 10
wis: 18
int: 12
chr: 14

Alignment: CG

Skills:
Diplomacy
Knowledge Relgion
Heal
Sense Motive
Perform-Dance

Domains:

Lorelei is a slender, young woman of Varisian heritage. Her long black hair typically hangs loose, flowing down to waist in soft waves and her dark brown eyes are warm with laughter.

Like typical Varisians, Lorelei leads a nomadic lifestyle, wandering the land, entertaining those she meets with her dances and preaching of the Goddess Shelyn and her divine beauty.

Ansha now finds herself stranded in Sandpoint, barely an adult by elven standards and without any friends or resources beyond her looks and her spells.

She dresses primarily in green and black, and her most common attire consists of a low-cut green corset and matching full-length skirt. Black half-gloves that end above her elbows cover her arms and similarly-dyed knee-high leather boots adorn her feet. A finely-crafted black choker adorns her throat and a slender silver necklace rests just beneath it.

Cherie was born among the wilds to a particularly proud, and vocal pair of arcane-wielding parents. Her father, Bastion was a genius wizard known in the exceptionally small community where Cherie was raised to be a bit of an eccentric, which among gnomes requires a stretch of the imagination, and her mother, Leila was the sorceress who captured his heart... literally. When enchantment magic failed, she utilized more brutish spells to disable him, because she longed for a child.

Or at the very least, she longed for the idea of a child. And so long as Cherie was docile and adorable, she was well loved by her mother, who on all the other occasions allowed Bastion to train the ungrateful whelp. Naturally, Bastion reared his offspring in the trappings of the arcane, his many lectures on the subject leaving the distinct impression of superiority on Cherie. How crestfallen Bastion was when Cherie's will channeled the fire of her mother. She would not sit still to study her books! She sang and danced, and was even known to abandon academic tomes mid sentence to commune with mischievous fey creatures in nature! "Absolutely not," declared Bastion one evening when he returned Cherie to Leila, "I will no longer host this... creature in my house!"

Leila giggled and pampered her mischievous daughter for a few months, but it was not long before the next greatest trinket and call to adventure captured her fancy. Donning her gear and a lusty smile, Leila bid farewell to the young Cherie, charging her with maintaining their modest home, and wishing her luck with developing her talents. Beside herself with grief for a period of about two hours, Cherie stole away into the wilds once more, where she was comforted by her secret friends, who in exchange for stories, songs and other fun activities demonstrated how to wield innate magics.

Cherie is a haughty trickster with an eccentric lust for life and adventure. The strange solution of her father's many, many pedantic lectures and spending her adolescent years amongst the fey have lent to Cherie adopting a peculiar philosophy about mortals in general, and humans especially. She is in Sandpoint for the dedication of the Cathedral out of mere curiosity, to witness how a droll occasion like founding a church brings such insignificant creatures together in celebration. True to her bloodline, she is easily excitable, prone to display exceedingly intense passions, and if left with too much time on her hands, pranks of varying degree of harm for her personal amusement.

Cherie is a petite three feet and three quarter inches, twenty eight pound gnome woman who wears her ankle length hair in an elaborate system of multi and often shifting colors during the day braids woven with ribbon, lace and sometimes live vines and flowers. She prefers to wear clothing that accentuates her androgynous figure, an inquisitive PC might learn was seen as quite a draw in the fey community. Cherie is obsessed with accessories, jewelry, shoes, gloves and hats, music and dancing. She has exceedingly large violet eyes framed with thick, white eyelashes that combined with her frequently flushed face, bring to mind images of watching snow fall against the backdrop of dawn on a winter morning. Her voice is high and sweet, although some have said that the particular pitch can be a bit irritating at times.

Upon awakening, the young dwarf recalled nothing of the horrific battle. In fact, he could remember nothing at all, except for his first name - Margrym.

On that fateful night, Garek Night Song adopted Margrym into the Shundar-Quah. Margrym grew up among the Shundar-Quah much like the other young Shoanti with the important differences of his size, his age, and his mysterious companion Night Whisper.

When it came time for his rite of passage, Margrym was sent to the Lyrune-Quah, the Moon Clan. Initial acceptance among the Moon Clan was difficult. Margrym found the bow simply impossible to learn. But, gradually, the young clansmen he was paired with learned that Margrym and his mountain lion companion, Night Whisper brought a different set of skills and became a welcome addition to any hunting party.

That reputation was cemented late one night when his hunting party was stealing through the Cinderlands along the Yondabakari River. Margrym's sharp hearing caught the sounds of battle from the shore ahead and creeping forward the small party found a similar party of Sklar-Quah beset by a band of orcs and a hill giant. Leaving the orcs to the arrows of his brothers-in-arms, Margrym and Night Whisper rushed to the aid of the Sklar-Quah fighting desperately against the giant. Moving swiftly into flanking positions, the dwarf and mountain lion attacked the giant together and a fortunate blow from Margrym slew the giant with a deep blow to its shoulder that nearly severed its neck.

That night and all the next day, the Lyrune-Quah camp rocked with celebration. The next morning, the Moon Clan's shaman came to Margrym and told him it was time for him to take The Black Walk.

Unsurprisingly, amidst the tunnels, lonely and lacking Night Whisper for the first time in his life, the vision that appeared next to him was a mountain lion. Margrym emerged from The Black Walk having earned his full name from the Lyrune-Quah shaman - Margrym Sees Through Shadow.

Shortly after the ceremony, Margrym returned to the Shundar-Quah. Garek Night Song had passed away, but Margrym joined a new shaman and began training as a shaman of the Spire Clan. Training that ended only a short time ago during the once-a-decade pilgrimage that Shundar-Quah shamans make to Spindlehorn on the eastern shore of the Storval Deep. There, while in commune, Margrym's mentor experienced a vision of a great doom that threatened not only all the Shoanti people, but all the peoples of Varisia. But, the vision also showed that there was hope and that the Shundar-Quah needed to send the fierce lion south into the lands of the outsiders to a town named Sandpoint.

In his teens, Vyran started running with some of the "bad kids", performing minor pranks and acts of vandalism which didn't endear him to the Sheriff or the folk at the Academy. After being brought home by the watch and being grounded one time too many, Vyran ran off from Sandpoint - his desire to explore and learn about himself overwhielming him.

After a few months of wandering aimlessly he ended up in Magnamar, taking small jobs as a day labourer to try to make ends meet. On one of those jobs, he met Ghislan, a priest of Cayden Cailean who offered to teach Vyrandel the skills he would need to make something of himself. Vyran initially refused, but Ghislan, having noted the birthmark, challenged him to a drinking contest: if he won, Vyran would have to study with him. Vyrandel accepting, thinking to make the old man pay for an evening of revelry, at the very least.

The next day, he began his studies with Ghislan and, for the first time, felt the call of service to a deity -- and finally felt like he found a place where he belonged.

Now, his training complete, Vyrandel is returning to Sandpoint some five years since he left.... Part of him simply seeks to reclaim some of the fun of his youth and join in the harvest festival (though, this time, also by sampling the ale), part of him is coming to apologize to people he harmed when he was younger... and part of him just feels compelled to be there...